Hybrid Theory: Generations
by The Sh33p
Summary: Some stories never begin, others never end, but this one has finally hit the breaking point. As new enemies and old friends reappear for one last romp at the Budoukai, a plot millions of years old finally comes to the surface... AU, songfic, R&R, enjoy!
1. Alive

  
  
**Author`s Note:** Guess who`s back... Back again... Sh33py`s back... Warn a friend...  
  
Anywho, I know it`s been a while but I was really committed to only posting this one up after it was all completed but I figured it`d be mean and probably cause any readers to lose interest in the series if I didn`t update soon. Also, I hope none of the formatting is off, I seem to be having a few problems with HTMLing some stories... Ah well, read!  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own Dragonball Z.  
  


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**

Hybrid Theory: Generations

**_  
Alive_  
  
  
  
Saturday, at exactly ten in the morning, on the dot. Normal teenagers could have, would have, and by all accounts _should have_ been sleeping in extra late. Normal teenagers would`ve woken up around twelve or so, normal teenagers would`ve then gone out with their friends and had a day of laziness, fun and probably the occasional party here or there. A normal teenage girl in specific would`ve also been consumed with things like say... Fashion, or boys.   
  
But then again, Videl Satan wasn`t a normal girl, was she? At the moment, she was hovering above a fairly windy field of grass, dotted by a crater or two. Her hair set in a messy bun atop the back of her head, a few strands poking out here and there. Dirt and bruises marred her at several points and that oversized white t-shirt she so favored wearing had obviously seen a few better days. It was a fairly good thing she wore a smaller pink t-shirt underneath it. Her spandex shorts were in reasonable conditions compared to the shirt, as were her boots. Her gloves were busted at the knuckles and said knuckles were each bruised at least partially.   
  
Yes, a normal girl would`ve likely wasted time _flirting_ with a boy she had a crush on. Videl prefered to simply beat the crap out of him instead.   
  
_ "Where are you hiding..."_ She thought. For roughly three years now, give or take two months, she had been learning the arts of ki fighting from one of the prodigal masters. Throughout these few years, many things had taken place. Videl had learned to fit into the group, and surprisingly enough, so had her father, though she felt they probably just thought of him as the group fool to some extent or another. She`d also finally managed to stay over at the Son House, not once, but many times. She actually had her own guest bedroom there by now since she came over each weekend. She`d also managed to fit him into _her_ little circle of friends, though he was considered the geek that nobody had the guts to mess with.   
  
She had also spent a significant chunk of those weekends doing nothing but learning ki control. She`d also become quite proficient in it. Videl was probably the only female on Earth at present who could claim to know how to pull off a Kame Hame Ha, though she was still getting the hang of that one. At present though, her training wasn`t focused on things like how to blow up moons or anything like that, her training was focused on things like detecting energy. It was probably the only field she had tried at so far that she hadn`t gotten at least the rudiments of.   
  
It was also the most frustrating given that Gohan was playing by a far different set of rules, moving just fast enough to keep out of her sight and appearing infrequently to fight her head on. She`d only gotten a few hits on him the entire time but she was slowly getting the hang of the pattern he was using.   
  
And then he popped up beneath her instead of behind or in front of her. Videl twisted hard as his leg flew by her side and scythed through the air. She burst down though, kicking him squarely in the back of the head and causing him to falter down a bit. "Got you!" She shouted while pulling back and throwing a hard punch towards his chin.   
  
But he just blurred out of the way with a grin, causing Videl to flip herself upright from her own momentum.   
  
_ "I hate it when he does that,"_ she grumbled in thought, trying in vain to follow the sounds of his movements with her ears. All she`d get was the occasional fluke whistle. Then she felt a subtle buzz in the back of her head, one that seemed to point around in various directions. At first it was hard to adapt to, but then, eventually, she managed to level herself off with it, shutting her eyes and tuning out the sound in the background.   
  
_ "I think..."   
  
"Maybe..."   
  
"Yeah, he`s right..."   
  
_ "There!" She shouted, flinging herself forward and shooting out a knee. Gohan blurred into sight once again immediately following what felt like her knee hitting a diamond, a slight bruise formed on his face as he faltered back ever so slightly. The look of surprise on his face was soon replaced by a smirk while he lowered himself gingerly to the ground. In the six years she had known him, Gohan had never changed his overall hairstyle, but he had changed in a good few other aspects. He was taller and certainly more limber now, and Erasa had a habit of staring at him half the time even during classes.   
  
"Nice shot," he called out, rubbing his cheek bemusedly. "Didn`t do more than bruise you," she pointed out sarcastically while floating down towards the ground. "Like that isn`t something to take pride in?" He mocked jokingly. Gohan didn`t have to guts to be an arrogant ass like Vegeta.   
  
At about that time however, a new voice intruded on things, followed by a second. "Lunch is ready!" Goten eagerly chirped while running in between the two. He was going fast enough to register as a near blur to Videl`s eyes, followed soon by another near blur in the form of one Trunks Briefs, who was currently flailing around with a butterfly net that had seen far better days than this one. The six and seven year old boys had only become bigger pranksters with age, Videl could still remember the time they swapped the shampoo for chocolate syrup during one of her more recent stays.   
  
"You can`t get me!" Goten shouted back at Trunks, skidding to a stop before backflipping over the other boy, who tried in vain to somehow catch him in the undersized butterfly net only to find that his efforts earned him a torn net and caused Goten to fall onto the ground with his feet tied up in what was left of that very net. "Got you!" Trunks cackled before smacking Goten on the side of the head and running away. Goten retained his balance for all of five seconds and fell over, grumbling under his breath.   
  
"Some things never change," Videl observed as Goten sprang back up, tore loose of the net and burst into a sprint after Trunks, shouting out a few childish obscenities before vanishing into the undergrowth of trees and bushes. "Nope," Gohan replied before glancing in the general direction of his home. "Race?" He asked. "Sure," she replied.   
  
The two teens soon vanished into the make of the terrain, blasting out of sight on foot while they raced towards the Son House.   
  
_ Everyday is a new day  
I'm thankful for every breath I take  
I won't take it for granted  
So I learn from my mistakes  
  
_ Life goes on elsewhere from the Son House however. In specific, life goes on most commonly at the place known as Kame House. The home of an old would-be hermit named Muten Roshi and a moral extremist turtle named Umi Gama, the house had, over the years, come to play as home to one of the most diverse small family groups in the world today. A perverse old man, a talking turtle, a shape changing pig, an android, a noseless ex-monk, a little girl and at one time, a blue-green skinned alien woman.   
  
Today, the aforementioned little girl was running along the shores of the ocean, carefully being watched by both of her parents, and that same moral extremist turtle. Roshi was being his usual self, pretending to read a porno magazine while in fact, he was asleep. Oolong was inside watching television, as usual. Krillin was idly sitting by on the front porch of the house, as was Juuhachigou. Today though, there was a guest.   
  
Namely the blue-green skinned alien woman who had formerly lived at the Kame House. Zangya had been doing pretty well for herself over the years. She wasn`t the richest person around but heck, the woman had an uncanny knack when it came to investments and such.   
  
"So, the next one`s going to be on May 11th then?" Krillin asked. Zangya only gave a nod. "Yep, should be about a month away," she replied after a moment. "Are you entering?" Juu asked, watching her daughter smack Umi over the head with a sand bucket a few times. "Probably, depends on the competition. So far it doesn`t look like very many people are going to show up since Videl`s dad retired in the last tournament. Not as much prestige when the only fighters who have any real track record anymore are the ones who can get shot with a tank round and not even blink."   
  
"True," Krillin agreed. "Depends on if Gohan enters then," he mused. "How so?" Juu asked. "Simple, he enters, then Videl enters. Piccolo goes in as well because he wants to see if his student can really hold his own in a battle, and Cell Junior would probably show up because... Well, he`s a dick, what do you expect? Then after that, Tien pops up because he wants a challenge and some prize money, maybe that Suta guy shows up, then you have Trunks and Goten, who`ll maim and destroy the entire junior tournament by mid-day, then you have Dabura possibly showing up since he, like Cell Junior, is a dick, and then you have you entering just for the hell of it, Vegeta because he wants to prove his massive superiority due to an overblown little man complex an-" Zangya cut in. "We get the point."   
  
"Good."   
  
"One thing though..."   
  
"Eh?"   
  
"Who the hell are you to say someone has a little man complex?" Zangya poked with a raised eyebrow. Krillin crashed out of his seat in a small dust cloud whilst Juu shrugged. "Alrighty then," Zangya said with a snicker, glancing towards Marron before getting up. "Suppose it`s time for me to go tell Gohan about the tournament, he probably knows but heck..."   
  
"Torture `im for me, will ya?" Krillin asked while scraping himself up. "Will do. Any idea on how long it`ll take those two to get together?" Zangya asked. "When Hell freezes over," Juuhachigou answered sarcastically.   
  
"Probably," Zangya remarked before taking off, exiting the small island in a blur.   
  
_ It's beyond my control, sometimes it's best to let go  
Whatever happens in this lifetime  
So I trust in love  
You have given me peace of mind   
  
_ Bulma and Videl stared in half-disgust, half-bemusement at the sight of the four people eating. ChiChi was simply smiling proudly, as she always did at the sight of watching her family and guests eat. She had a slight complex about food, meaning she felt best about her cooking when there was nothing left to count as left-overs.   
  
It was probably why she was so proud of her ability to cook in the first place when you consider how her family and some friends ate. At present though, Bulma had never quite adjusted and Videl found it easy to eat alone, away from the four of them. This was mainly due to the vaccum effect of Trunks and Vegeta. While Goten and Gohan had both managed to learn manners of sorts(such as not talking with food in their mouth, not spewing said food onto someone when they did, using utensils rather than trying to dump the bowl down their throats, etc), Trunks and Vegeta had both only recently learned the usage of things like forks, spoons and the occasional usage of chopsticks.   
  
"Why can`t the elg`caress cook like your mother?" Vegeta asked, slipping into his native language for a single word as he sometimes did. Ever since that fight with Zangya at the last Tenkaichi Budoukai, he`d found it extremely amusing to use Saiyan cuss words when refering to everyone in an offensive fashion. Especially given those angry glares that ChiChi would give him, knowing she didn`t understand a single word he said.   
  
And of course, no one replied. Gohan was too busy shoveling food into his mouth, Goten had finished in literal record timing and was staring off into no where while Trunks and Vegeta both continued dumping entire bowls down their throats.   
  
In truth, Goten wasn`t really zoning out. He was just watching Jack, the same old imaginary friend he`d always had since birth. Everyone generally attributed it to the fact that Goten seemed to have a massive imagination. The boy had a good many talents, not the least of which was his ability to speak beyond his years, or his profound talents with fighting. If anything, he seemed to be a child genius on a level that surpassed Gohan or Trunks when they were his age. His abilities to adapt to situations seemed supernatural even for the second son of one of the greatest heroes ever known in history.   
  
And the only one who actually noticed this outside of the positive aspects was Gohan. He had yet to forget the way the Mirai Goten he had encountered years earlier acted, and while he could chalk a lot of that up to that Goten`s potentially traumatic upbringing, it had never quite eased up on how he thought of his time`s Goten. It was a rather disconcerting experience really. He still knew Goten had talents he hadn`t accessed yet and he was actually afraid of what would come to pass if the boy ever did.   
  
But for now... For now, life was good.   
  
Gohan smiled to himself while he finished eating, leaning back and accidentally losing balance. The Gokuesque hair-do he wore on his head swept forward and flopped into his face as he fell from the bench, plopping onto the ground hard with a belch.   
  
"Food... Coma... Can`t... Move..."   
  
"Shut up brat," Vegeta grumbled.   
  
"Gnnnn..." Gohan groaned, laying there with a content, drunken looking smile on his face.   
  
"Saiyans," a new voice interrupted, the eyes of it`s owner rolling as it did so. "Oh look, it`s the great green bi-" "Vegeta!" "-tch," Vegeta pointed out, interrupted half-way by Bulma`s shout. "Love you too Veggie, really," she replied while tucking her hands into her pockets. "Hi Zan," Videl said with a half-wave. "Hey Aunt Zan!" Goten and Trunks both called out. They`d both pretty much adopted the woman as a mutual aunt over the years as it was, a stark contrast from how things could have been. "Hey everyone," she replied with the same kind of half-wave Videl had given her. "What brings you out here?" ChiChi asked.   
  
"Probably out to whore herself to the plumber," Vegeta cut in. "No no shortie, that`d be you," she retorted sharply before walking towards the table. "Having a good nap I take it?" She asked , earning a grunt from Gohan. "I`ll take that as a yes then." And with that, Zangya casually leaned her elbow into Vegeta`s scalp, resting her weight there and grinding her elbow through the mass of hair on his head.   
  
"As for what brings me here..." She paused before explaining. "The next Tenkaichi`s been announced to take place in exactly one month from today. Competition looks a little scarce but the prize money`s been jacked up into the low tens of millions this time around," she explained. "Low tens of millions?" ChiChi asked. Bulma didn`t show much interest though. Millions of zenni were like a drop in the bucket to one of the richest women on Earth. "Yep. Fifteen million for the winner, ten million for the runner-up, five million for fourth, two and a half million for fifth, and five hundred thousand for even making it into the quarter finals," she explained, watching the stars appear in ChiChi`s eyes.   
  
"What`s the junior prize?" Goten asked. Zangya stopped to think briefly and then shrugged. "I think five hundred thousand to one million, don`t really remember," she replied. "It`s probably five hundred thousand, they don`t usually hand out huge amounts of money to children when they could be using that money to draw in more adult fighters," Videl answered. "Good point," Zangya replied. ChiChi didn`t hear any of them.   
  
"Gohan and Goten are entering," she ordered more than suggested. "And so are Vegeta and Trunks," Bulma shot back with the same tone. "Guess I`m in too," Videl shrugged. "Then so am I," Zangya grinned. "I`ll go tell Piccolo and the others... Anyone have a clue where I can find Tien?" She asked. "Not really, but if you can find Chaozu he`ll probably be close by. Try the mountains east of North Capital," Gohan answered.   
  
And that was about the time, as Zangya prepared to take off and leave for the Look Out, that something to be described only as magic took place.   
  
_ Sunshine upon my face  
A new song for me to sing  
Tell the world how I feel inside  
Even though it might cost me everything   
  
_ "**I`m going too!**" A new voice cut into the scene. A surprisingly familiar one to about half of those present. "Kakarot?" Vegeta muttered out, shooting his gaze up from the rice he had been wolfing down. Gohan was surprisingly silent and Goten, Trunks, Videl and Zangya all bore mirroring looks of curiosity. "Goku?" ChiChi finally asked.   
  
"**Yep, it`s me! Long time no see everyone!**" The voice shouted back. "How is it in the afterlife, Kakarot?" Vegeta asked in a surprisingly unthreatening tone of voice. "**Pretty good actually, I`ve been training pretty hard with King Kaio. Even if it is the afterlife, I`ve been having a pretty good time these past few years,**" Goku answered. "... Dad?" Goten mumbled out, looking around for wherever the voice was coming from. "Wow," Gohan stated while picking himself up off the ground and glancing over at Goten. "So you`re going to be coming to the Budoukai?" He asked.   
  
"**Yep! I asked Baba to bring me back for a day since I`ve gotten a lot of good spiritual credit over all I`ve done in my life and since I`ve been dead... The day of the Budoukai!**" He shouted back happily. "This should be interesting," Vegeta mumbled, warily glancing over at Gohan as he did so. _"Surprised the brats aren`t ecstatic right now,"_ he thought. "Is that my dad?" Goten whispered over at Trunks. "I think so," Trunks replied.   
  
"**Gohan and Vegeta are going too, right?**" Goku asked. "Yes," ChiChi answered, choking up slightly. "_Then I`ll definately be there!_" Goku shouted, causing Zangya to place a hand over her left ear. "He sure does yell a lot," she grumbled below her breath. "This will be a contest to remember then... I`ve become quite strong over the past years," Vegeta bragged at the disembodied voice of Goku. "_Great, so have I,_" Goku offered back, practically tasting the challenge in his old rival`s voice.   
_"It figures,"_ Gohan thought sourly, glancing off to the side rather than at Goten or anyone else. "**See you all at the tournament, everyone!**" Goku shouted before a pop rang through everyone`s ears.   
  
"That... That was really Dad?" Goten finally asked loud enough to be heard by someone other than Trunks. "Yeah, that was him," Gohan answered. "Hey Zangya, I`ll go with you to tell everyone, deal?" Gohan asked, taking off before she could even answer.   
  
"... Sure... I guess," she replied a few seconds later. "Bye everyone, see you soon," she offered at the group, then took off in a blaze after Gohan. Goten on the other hand was soon turning blue as ChiChi hugged him and rambled off about getting to meet his father again.   
  
And that brought up an interesting question to Videl`s mind. While Goten seemed genuinely happy to meet with his father, Gohan barely even seemed phased by it. Given how highly people spoke of Goku, something didn`t fit right.   
  
_ "I guess I`ll just have to figure it out later or ask him myself,"_ she thought before asking another peculiar question. "Uhm... He`s coming back from the dead?"   
  
_ Now that I know this, so beyond, I can't hold this  
I can never turn my back away  
Now that I've seen you  
I can never look away  
  
_ Given that Gohan hadn`t bothered powering up to the extremes she knew he was capable of, Zangya had no trouble catching up to him. It was almost like he had wanted someone to. And so she did, she flew right on up beside him and set herself in flight alongside the youth, glancing over at him before speaking. "What the heck was that all about?" She asked. Gohan shrugged. "What was what about?"   
  
"Aren`t you in the least bit excited that he`s coming back?" Zangya questioned. "Not really, he did choose to stay dead," Gohan apathetically replied. "Your father`s been dead for six years and all you can offer back is that? Come on, there has to be something that would make you not really care..."   
  
"He`s been dead to me for eleven," he replied with the same apathy as before. "Why is that?" Zangya asked. "You don`t know him like I did. No one did. Picture a combination of Vegeta with Goten`s attitude aged to around 32 or so, then toss in my height and shorten the sleeves of the undershirt," Gohan answered, summarizing his view on his father fairly simply. "That isn`t a very big help, you know. You get along with Vegeta and Goten just fine," she retorted. "Then let`s just say I had a few revelations about three years ago. And while we`re at it, let`s also just say I need a haircut," he exclaimed, catching Zangya off gaurd twice in a row.   
  
"Why a haircut?"   
  
"Goten looks exactly like my dad. Look at my hair and then look at Goten`s," he explained. "About time I got some individuality from them both anyway."   
  
"So much for your good lunch, huh?" Zangya asked sarcastically. "You have no idea," Gohan answered as the two sped off towards the Look Out.   
  
_ I feel so alive for the very first time  
I can't deny you  
I feel so alive  
I feel so alive for the very first time   
And I think I can fly  
  
_ "I can`t wait for this tournament to happen," Goku said with a grin. By all means, this was the happiest he`d been in close to sixteen or seventeen years. "It`ll be great to see how far everyone`s come and how the Earth`s doing..." He began, trailing off while King Kaio listened intently. "To see ChiChi again..." He said with a wistful expression. "And your son, and your rival, and your friends, and this, that, Mount Paozu," King Kaio jokingly interrupted his best student`s musings.   
  
"You`re right King Kaio. It`ll be good to see Gohan again, I wonder how far he`s come since he took down Bojack?" Goku asked, settling back down against a random tree. His tattered orange training gi hung loosely on his frame, and across the grassy field that was now pockmarked with a few trenches and a crater or three, Pikkon was standing resolute, wiping sweat and blood from his face and cracking his knuckles. West Kaio was trying in vain to give him a pep talk.   
  
"I take it you`re proud of him then, eh?" King Kaio asked. "Very. I know I wouldn`t have lasted half as long as I did at protecting the Earth if I was up against the kind of things he probably faced since Cell. I kinda feel like I missed out on being his father, really," he explained. "What happens, happens. Fate has it`s reasons with these things Goku, I`m sure he won`t hold it against you that you chose to stay dead. He has proven himself to be a worthwhile successor to you in defending the Earth, after all."   
  
"I suppose you`re right," Goku conceded, glancing up at the Otherworld that the Grand Kaio`s planet orbited like a moon. "I`m always right Goku, remember that," King Kaio exclaimed. "Heh..."   
  
_ "Then why do I feel like the biggest deadbeat dad in history?"_ He asked himself. Despite common conceptions, Goku - the legend that he was in his own lifetime - was not without issues with which he held angst about.He had anxiety over how he had killed his grandfather, anxiety over how many times he had accidentally knocked ChiChi unconcious when they were first married, anxiety over whether or not the Earth could truly last without him protecting it. Most of all, he had anxiety over his abilities as a parent. Goku had only been around for Gohan for a total of seven and a half years. Four and a half first, three once he`d returned from space. It was less than half of his son`s life.   
  
He solved his problems in a typically Saiyan fashion: Beat through them. He`d spent the past years of being dead doing little more than training. He rarely even ate anymore, hunger seemed to truly fade when you`d been dead for over a half a decade. Nothing but endless training, sometimes violent hands on spars with Olibu, Pikkon or his own father. He had met Bardock numerous times in the past years, mainly during the yearly Tournament of the Dead, held every Halloween. It was the only time of year when the lines between some of the Hells and Heaven blurred out of existence and some of Hell`s best warriors were allowed to participate as the Damned Kaio`s representatives.   
  
He`d probably won that tournament every time since he started fighting in it, but he`d also gone to Hell as well. He knew both of his parents, though he refused to refer to them as such. Sometimes he wondered if Gohan would do that when he met him again, and what would ChiChi do? He knew she was probably crushed when he didn`t return that day, but what about everyone else too?   
  
Was he still the same old Goku, or had all of the years of fighting finally taken their toll on the once overly cheerful, all too naive boy that became one of the biggest legends of history?   
  
"Ready to start again?" Pikkon asked, casting his heavy hat aside and following a moment later with his even heavier overcoat and belt. Goku shrugged and got back up to his feet, a rare uncertainty marring his voice.   
  
"As I`ll ever be..."   
  
_ Now that I know you  
I could never turn my back away  
Now that I see you  
I could never look away  
Now that I know you  
I could never turn my back away  
Now that I see you  
I believe no matter what they say  
  
_ Goku and Pikkon charged at each other in the usual fashion, locking hands as they always did before Goku flared up into Super Saiyan and began pushing Pikkon back, gouging foot sized trenches into the ground beneath the green warrior`s feet.   
  
_ I feel so alive for the very first time  
I can't deny you  
I feel so alive  
I feel so alive for the very first time   
And I think I can fly  
  
_ And elsewhere that night, a certain demi-saiyan prodigy lay quietly in the bedroom he sometimes shared with his elder brother. He slept on the floor tonight, since he`d come in while Gohan was already asleep. It had actually unnerved him just a bit that his brother had left with the same sort of overall style he himself wore and came back with a different haircut altogether. He actually had a bit of trouble identifying him!   
  
But now... Now he was lying peacefully in his sleeping back, a teddy bear he sometimes refused to acknowledge the existence of held to his side while he stared out of the window of brother`s bedroom. Gohan lay in bed still, sleeping. His douji was laying in a basket at the foot of his bed and his pajamas were worn as if he`d thrown them on while already half-asleep. His hair had changed a bit alright, it was now a good deal shorter than the foot long masses of black that had once been his hairstyle. The same general style remained though, just far shorter, to saner lengths.   
  
It still unnerved Goten. He wasn`t used to very much change in his life and he probably never would be.   
  
"Worried about what Daddy`ll think o` ya?" Jack asked. "Uh-huh," Goten replied, glancing from the window to the tiny figure only he could see, that of an action figure-sized man with flowing red hair and ghostly pale skin, which rested on the foot of Gohan`s bed. "Isn`t that cute," the figure spat.   
  
"Shut up Jack," Goten grumbled before yanking the sleeping back up over his head and zipping it shut from the inside. Kids did weird things like that, after all.   
  
"Heh..." Jack smirked, glancing up the bed and watching Gohan sleep like a hawk watches it`s prey.   
  


_ End Part One_  
  


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**Author`s Note:** Hope you enjoyed the first part folks, leave a review!  
  
Sh33p out.  
  



	2. Hello Again

  
  
**Author`s Note:** Leave a review!  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


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**

Hybrid Theory: Generations   
__

**Hello Again   
  
  
  
Capsule Corporation headquarters, the home of the Briefs family and the former home of well over a hundred and fifty aliens, considered by many to be the most valued building on Earth. While it wasn`t the home of any of the dozen or so capsule factories, it was home to Doctor Briefs` private lab, Mrs. Briefs` studio headquarters(she happened to own the production rights of a cooking show, a home and gardening channel and an extreme sports channel. Or four), Bulma Briefs` astrophysics/mechanics/cybernetics/this/that/whatever-else-you-can-think-of lab(she actually called it "Bulma Industries" but the name never quite caught on like Capsule Corp), a self contained wildlife reserve with three dozen severely endangered species in a room that was actually bigger than the city the building was in due to Doctor Briefs` work on capsule technology, and it was finally home to one of the lesser known artifacts in existence today: the Royal Crest of the Saiyan Monarchy. Contrary to popular belief across the civilized universe, it had survived due to Zarbon`s greed(he`d scraped the pieces up and had a lackey rebuild it), and Vegeta`s unending willingness to go through any and all forms of Hell, torture, humiliation and pain to get it back.   
  
Probably the key reason the two had so despised one another in the grand scheme of things.   
  
Today however, the massive dome-shaped building was playing host to a gathering of friends and family. By most cases it could be looked upon as a reunion of sorts, by others it could be looked upon as a precursor to another Tenkaichi Budoukai hijacking. Those gathered represented the cream of the Earth`s crop. Bulma Briefs and both of her parents, arguably some of the smartest people to live within the past two hundred years, Trunks Briefs and Son Goten, two prodigal child geniuses in their own right, and the youngest to ever compete in a Tenkaichi Budoukai(they`d lied about their age at the time), Son Gohan and Videl Satan, both the children of former champions who were carving out impressive records for themselves in the history of the fighting world. There was also the former Prince Vegeta, who counted as the last pure blooded Saiyan alive, and the last of a bloodline of royal warriors that traced a lineage directly back to the Legendary Super Saiyan himself(though he`d probably burst a vein if he learned that his rival could also indirectly trace his lineage back to that same warrior).   
  
After that you had Son ChiChi, an impressive fighter in her own right, potentially one of the best cooks on Earth, Piccolo Daimou Junior, a former kami, demon king and True Warrior all at once, thought by some to be a Super Namek of some sort, Zangya Ku, a former planetary destroyer, Yamcha Soza*, a famous ex-baseball player, retired martial artist, ex-desert bandit and currently one of the best selling authors of fantasy and historical fiction in recent memory, Krillin and Juuhachigou Chestnut, the current Turtle Master and the single most powerful human woman(even if she _was_ a cyborg) on the face of the planet, and Marron Chestnut, their daughter, who`s sheer existence challenged science almost as much as that of her two contemporaries, Trunks and Goten.   
  
All in all, it was a fairly motley crew, especially counting in the two shapeshifters, and the former Turtle Master, as well as his moral extremist pet, the Ox King, and the man who still held the world`s population by the heart, Hercule Satan. It was quite surprising to those around him that people refused to forget that he was around, and some still considered him to be one of the best alive.   
  
There were two airbuses arranged a few yards away from the massive grouping, both of which featured the Capsule Corp logo on them.   
  
Away from the main grouping though, three figures were anxiously standing by. One was that of the casually dressed Vegeta, who was wearing the outfit he usually wore when he wasn`t bludgeoning himself senseless training, that of a pair of white gym pants and a long sleeved, dark blue shirt, his duffel bag held tucked under one arm. The second, and largest of the group, was that of Piccolo, who wore what he always wore, and the other was that of the douji wearing Son Gohan, who was stretching and cracking his knuckles as if expecting the tournament to begin at any moment now.   
  
"Will you stop that?" Vegeta grunted. "Stop what?" Gohan asked, hopping from side to side. "That," Vegeta answered. "What?" Gohan asked, still hopping from side to side. He genuinely didn`t seem to know what was ticking Vegeta off. "That!" He said a bit louder. "What?!" Gohan asked, pausing finally on one foot but still bouncing up and down on it. "_That_!" Vegeta shouted, glaring at the youth. "_What_?!" Gohan shot back, still bouncing on one foot. Vegeta twitched and finally shot a low powered ki beam into the ground beneath Gohan`s foot during one of his jumps, blasting the ground out and causing Gohan to land awkwardly and fall over backwards.   
  
"Better."   
  
"I think I`m going to die of old age by the time they finish talking and get into the damn cars," Piccolo uttered. "Airbuses," Vegeta corrected. Piccolo shot him a sideways look that said 'shut up now,' while Vegeta simply smirked at him. Gohan on the other hand finally sprang back up after a few seconds and dusted the back of his douji off. "They are talking a while, huh?" He asked. "No shit, Sherly," Vegeta replied. "Sher_lock_," Piccolo corrected. This time Vegeta shot Piccolo the sideways look that said 'shut up now,' while Piccolo just smirked back at him. "Bah, I`ll be in one of the airbuses," Vegeta growled, stomping off towards the closer of the two vehicles.   
  
"Surprised he hasn`t just taken off without anyone else," Gohan mused. "Don`t give him any ideas," Piccolo replied. The two were quiet for a time, waiting on the rest of the group to hurry up and finish their pre-flight chats. In an odd event though, Piccolo broke the silence. "What do you feel about the chance to see Goku again?" He asked. Gohan shrugged. "Not nearly as ecstatic as Mom and Goten are," he answered. "How is that?" Piccolo asked, curious as to what it had to take to cause a father-son bond that tight to crack enough that Gohan didn`t even sound excited in the least.   
  
"Just... Not," Gohan answered. "I see."   
  
Another pause. "Any competition you think you`ll be up against?" Piccolo asked. "Vegeta, you and Zangya," Gohan answered fairly quickly. "I meant that you couldn`t beat without going beyond," Piccolo corrected himself. "Ah... Vegeta and Cell," Gohan answered again. "Vegeta?"   
  
"He`s a few steps below me," Gohan began. "I could probably out power and speed him pretty well but not without going full on," he explained. "I take it he wasn`t bragging about mastering Super Saiyan and going beyond then?" Piccolo asked. "Right," Gohan agreed. "He may not have gone _beyond_ yet but he`s close enough that he could if he got angry enough, and given how much of an angry hearted person he is..."   
  
"I see what you mean," Piccolo replied. "Has anyone ever told you that you`re a genius?" Piccolo asked. "Erasa and Sharpener have, but I think that`s more because I have straight A+`s on my report cards," Gohan sarcastically stated. "Well, you are," Piccolo said with a shrug.   
  
"Alright everyone, we`re finished! Get into a bus and let`s head out!" Bulma shouted. Piccolo and Gohan calmly began to walk towards the nearest airbus, exchanged sideways glances and promptly changed course, thinking the same thought as they saw Vegeta having claimed the driver`s seat.   
  
_ "No way, no how, not a chance in Hell am I riding with a driver as bad as him."  
  
I dream that someday we'll be able to  
Look back on this together and say  
It was for the best and that it made us  
Stronger today, stronger today  
  
_ The Grand Kaio`s planet. It had been exactly one month of time that he had spent doing little more than meditating, ending a six year training cycle on the top of the tallest mountain on Otherworld, then returning to the Grand Kaio`s planet. Goku was a man of great patience, he had proven that much several times over the years. He was able to keep his cool under any fire someone could knowingly throw at him. Keyword: Knowingly. At present, he was standing beside a man of elder years, the kind of guy who could easily be anyone`s grandfather, a man dressed in a weighty, thick looking yellow-green overshirt, dark green pants and dress shoes and a skullcap.   
  
"You shouldn`t be stressing over this, Grandson," Gohan Senior advised calmly. "I can`t help it. Bad enough I haven`t been there for him for half of his life, what about ChiChi?" Goku thought aloud, scratching the back of his neck. His adopted grandfather just shook his head. "Family life isn`t an easy thing, Goku. Know why I didn`t hug you once during the time I was alive?" Gohan asked. "I was scared, just like you`re scared now. Petty thing to be concerned with, but still," he explained.   
  
"Grandpa, I kinda doubt this equates to hugs," Goku cynically pointed out. "Just an analogy," Gohan Senior replied with a shrug. "Don`t worry about it though, Goku. You`ve got a whole day to make things right and knowing you, you`ll have any problems steamrolled out in an hour or two. Three tops," the older man pointed out.   
  
Goku chuckled. "I hope so..."   
  
_ There's much more for us to see  
A brand new day for you and me  
And with confidence I say, "We're better than ever"  
And I don't know where this will lead  
  
"I hate bus rides,"_ Gohan thought to himself. He was seated idly in the second right passenger seat, staring out of the window next to him with Videl sitting on his left and Trunks and Goten taking up the row across from them. Behind were Krillin and Juu, with Marron sitting between them, across from them were ChiChi and Zangya. Hercule, Piccolo and Roshi took up the back, though Roshi and Hercule were both squished off to the side slightly by Piccolo`s mantle. Neither had the guts to tell the 6'6" green skinned, fanged, clawed alien warrior to set it on the floor though.   
  
Banter was being exchanged in pretty much each row, and at present, Mrs. Briefs was flying the airbus. By all means, she was a far more expert pilot than her recent common law son-in-law, who had probably been bludgeoned verbally and/or physically by her daughter for control of the second airbus. Doctor Briefs was idly catching a nap with his cat still on his shoulder as it always was. Hans and Patti Briefs weren`t exactly sociable people, they rarely got out of their expansive house anymore but they had made it a point to do so at least once every five or six years. Given that Goku was returning, and both had developed quite an affinity to him over the years, the two had considered it as good a time as any to make their semi-annual trip out of the house.   
  
What was also interesting was that Mrs. Briefs had never taken a single flight lesson in her life. The sad part of this was that she was also most likely the single best pilot of anyone in the entire group, barring only Yamcha, who had a good bit of skill in flying aircraft due to aerial hijackings being a part of life for any half-good desert bandit, let alone one of the best to ever take up the mantle of King Hyena. Even if he was retired, remove every ounce of ki and such on Earth and Yamcha likely would`ve been in the top five most dangerous people alive, if only because he had the most ingenuity and the skill to back it all up.   
  
But everyone still had their ki, thank you very much. As such, he was relegated to being the most powerful retiree in existence. Krillin didn`t count due to his insistance on keeping at least partially well trained over the years outside of the infrequent friendly spar, and Tien probably trained as much as Vegeta did half the time.   
  
None of this information even made itself into the mind of the seventeen year old Videl Satan. Idly fingering the crystalline gem of the necklace she`d gotten as a congratulatory gift three years earlier, she was busy pondering on just how she would approach a legend. The spectre of Son Goku`s reputations for everything from kindness to combat hung heavily in the back of her mind. To be quite honest, he seemed like a living(sort of) archetype of what a truly great fighter should have been.   
  
And then there was the spectre of Gohan`s vague unenthusiasm about any of it. Jealousy had been a question that popped into her mind several times in the past days, mainly since she could relate to that herself. Most of her life had been spent in the shadow of her father`s career, and it still partially was to an extent. Had Gohan endured the same?   
  
Possible but highly unlikely. About the only times she`d ever spotted him showing jealousy to anyone was when someone managed to eat more than he did. Something about wolfing down food seemed like an instinctive sport between he, Goten, Vegeta and Trunks. Besides, he was too naive to be jealous. It didn`t fit with what she knew of him.   
  
_ "What is it that can drive a wedge between Gohan and anyone?"_ She asked herself, giving him a sideway glance. He was obviously a bit too distant to notice someone looking at him, but that didn`t stop her. Gazing down at her little good luck charm, she shrugged to herself and resolved to ask him later, tugging the oversized short sleeve shirt she wore out a little and then dropping it down so that it rested between that and the sleeveless pink shirt she wore underneath it, effectively hiding the entire thing from view since the back of it rested beneath part of her hair and her pigtails obscured the sides.   
  
"Anyone wanna place a bet on whether or not the arena is going to survive this time around?" Krillin asked, causing Zangya to pause in her conversation with ChiChi and speak up. "Fifty Zenni says it blows up from a Kame Hame Ha," she challenged. "Seventy-five says it goes up from a Big Bang Attack," Roshi cut in. "Eighty says it blows up in a way none of us expect," Krillin shot back at both of them. "Ninety on it surviving intact," Juuhachigou offered apathetically.   
  
"A hundred says you`re all a bunch of dumb asses. How long until we arrive at the island?" Piccolo interrupted the betting, earning glares from Krillin, Juu and Zangya. "About an hour," Patti answered. "Suppose you could get out and push us if you want to get there faster," Krillin suggested. "Don`t give me any ideas, I may actually carry it out."   
  
"Then I guess you could always self destruct while wearing a frilly pink skirt," Zangya replied. "... At least I`d have the honest satisfaction of taking your sorry bluish green ass with me," Piccolo shot back. "I didn`t know you cared," Zangya mocked. "Besides, you`re just jealous I`m a better coloring than you are this time of year," she snidely pointed out. "... That`s not the point here," Piccolo grumbled.   
  
"Sure it`s not. Don`t worry, accepting your denial is the first step to getting help, you`ll pull through eventually."   
  
"Just shut up."   
  
"Then don`t give me cannon fodder to throw at you."   
  
"Both of you shut up or I blow the plane out of the sky," Juu growled. Neither paid any attention to her. "Just admit it," Zangya ordered. "Admit what?"   
  
"You`re jealous."   
  
"Of what?"   
  
"He`s jealous of your hair, Juu, he told me so himself," Gohan lied, actually joining the conversation for one.   
  
"Gah, traitor!" Piccolo shouted. "He`s also in envy of your expert fashion sense, I mean, really... How many people are gonna pick out a mish-mash douji in twenty minutes that doesn`t clash with their hair, skin or eye color?" Videl got in on the act. Torture Piccolo Day had officially begun.   
  
And then Juu powered up a ki blast.   
  
Everyone shut up from there.   
  
"That`s what I thought," she said with a shred of a smirk on her face, powering back down.   
  
_ But in my life you need to be  
Cause I need to say, "Hello again"  
I'm so afraid that if I wait too long  
You'll never look in my eyes again  
With a look that gave me strength and gave me hope  
And made me feel I've inspired  
  
_ As for the other airbus...   
  
"**_IF YOU`D JUST LET ME DRIVE WE`D BE THERE IN HALF THE TIME!_**"   
  
"**_AND YOU`D BLOW MOST OF THE OTHER AIRCARS OUT OF THE SKY!_**"   
  
"**_HOW IS THAT A BAD THING?!_**"   
  
_ "Why me, Dende?"_ Yamcha asked himself, sinking into his seat along with the other unfortunate passengers on the second airbus as Bulma and Vegeta had yet another of their infamous verbal jousting matches. Unlike most would think, these things weren`t very entertaining when you were sitting up close to them. Oolong`s ears were bleeding, Puar had fainted in shock and Umi was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, among other things.   
  
"_**BACK TO THE PASSENGER`S SEAT!!!**_"   
  
"Elg`caress..." Vegeta muttered, ceding to the almighty power of an irate Bulma. For now anyhow.   
  
"What did you say?" She demanded, glaring at him with the kind of look that`d frighten Frieza. Vegeta, gaining a semblance to a shred of sanity for the first time in his life, took the coward`s way out. He`d probably rationalize it later as not wanting to anger Bulma too much that she`d find some way to spoil his fight with Kakarot, but for all intents and purposes it really came down to a simple point: Vegeta enjoyed being alive. Being alive meant he had a chance to really _finish_ things with Kakarot. That aside, Bulma killing him would probably be the single most humiliating way he could die.   
  
So he cheaped his way out of it.   
  
"I was giving your voice a wonderful compliment in Saiyago," he stated, giving his vocabulary a one time expansion in his efforts to save himself. "Oh... Okay," Bulma said, returning to her usual floaty self and going back to flying the airbus.   
  
_ "Remind me to wish for her temper to lessen,"_ Vegeta thought desperately, rubbing sweat from his brow.   
  
_ There's much more for us to see  
A brand new day for you and me  
And with confidence I say, "We're better than ever"  
And I don't know where this will lead  
  
_ The remainder of the ride varied depending on which airbus you were on. For the one that Gohan was on, things were almost dead silent among competitors, leaving only ChiChi and the Briefs to chat between each other with Trunks and Goten whispering to each other infrequently. Roshi had fallen asleep and Hercule was twiddling his thumbs. Piccolo looked to be meditating, Zangya had her 'game face' on, Videl was relaxed, Gohan looked about as intense as Zangya, Juu was watching Marron nap and Krillin was sizing up the other would-be fighters, watching his chances diminish with each of them, save for Videl, who he could still beat without all that much effort on his part. As fast the girl improved, she wasn`t quite up to the levels of one of the best humanity had to offer, though Krillin was certain the girl could utterly annihilate Roshi in a few minutes tops.   
  
As for the ride on the airbus Bulma and Vegeta were on?   
  
God help you. It was the antithesis of a relaxed, or anxious silence, filled with another screaming war between the only couple that could probably pull off saying 'I`m going to kill you because I love you!' and be truly honest about it.   
  
But anyway, the island was finally coming into view as Gohan glanced up from out of the window, shifting around in his seat very briefly. _"Almost time..."_ He thought uneasily, feeling the urge to smirk cross his mind. He didn`t though, Gohan wasn`t the type to smirk when he was dead serious, not often anyway. _"He`s there. Good,"_ he added.   
  
"Something wrong?" Videl asked, nudging him in the side of the arm. Gohan shrugged. "Anxious," he answered a moment later. "This Goku thing has ya worried?" She asked. Gohan shook his head. "It`s not that. If it was I`d just be a bit cranky," he answered. "Eh?" Videl asked. "Nothing," Gohan replied, cracking his knuckles lazily.   
  
Videl just stared at him for a minute and then shook her head, leaning back into the seat and shifting a glance over at Zangya, then Goten and Trunks.   
  
Which reminded her that she`d probably have to face one of them after the Junior round ended.   
  
Videl twitched briefly and groaned, sinking into her seat.   
  
"We`re here!" Patti enthusiastically shouted back at the group. "About time," Piccolo grumbled, getting up to his feet and having to bend down slightly to avoid braining himself on the ceiling. Gradually, the airbus slid down to the ground, easing itself down and setting level in the Northern parking lot. Several seconds later, the second airbus touched down, and around the same time, the side doors of both popped open and the occupants began to file out.   
  
"Fun ride, huh?" Zangya casually asked Yamcha as he stumbled out of the other airbus, Puar clinging unconciously to his back, Oolong staggering along behind him. The Ox King followed the three of them, Umi Gama not a step behind him. The lot looked burnt out beyond words, and Bulma and Vegeta exited their airbus a few moments later, looking as if nothing had happened.   
  
"Someone kill me," Yamcha uttered in disdain, flopping back and sandwhiching Puar with the ground.   
  
"I`ll take that as a yes," Zangya exclaimed before turning around and catching her duffel back, which Piccolo had so casually chucked at her like a grenade. Trunks followed a moment or so later, catching a similar pass from Vegeta, while Krillin, the only one of the lot smart enough to carry his own duffel bag, came out of things effectively unscathed.   
  
A few more minutes and the group had formed up into a large circle, gingerly walking along. Hercule had elected to take the long way, reasoning that he was going to keep the rest of the group free of reporters and get mobbed himself rather than let them get trampled.   
  
And sure enough, the moment someone with a loud enough voice noticed him, it looked as though half the island had formed into a mob and stampeded after the former champion.   
  
"Remind me to thank him sometime," Gohan mused. "Will do," Videl replied. "And here I was thinking the crowds would diminish without him competing," Krillin grumbled. "This is gonna be annoying," he added a few seconds later while the group began to walk towards the arena.   
  
"Anyone know where Goku is?" ChiChi asked. "I can`t feel him yet, he probably isn`t here," Piccolo answered. "I take it he`s got a habit of being late?" Zangya asked. "Nah, just wait till everyone`s half dead, then he`ll show up," Gohan sarcastically replied. "I see..."   
  
_ But in my life you need to be  
Cause I need to say, "Hello again"  
Hello again, hello again, yeah  
Hello again, yeah  
  
_ "Long time no see everyone!" A new voice cut in from behind. Piccolo and ChiChi were the first to turn around and look past the hulking figure of the Ox King as Son Goku once again returned to the Earth, for the first time in six years. Uranai Baba hovered on her crystal ball next to him, holding a smirk that mirrored that of Piccolo. Zangya just looked at him curiously while virtually everyone else in the group who knew Goku directly rushed towards him and hugged him, or stood by and smiled, smirked or thought to themselves.   
  
Everyone except one.   
  
"I`ll be at the arena," Gohan stated, casually continuing to walk towards the arena as if nothing had changed at all. Vegeta stared at him as if he was out of his mind, as did Videl and Zangya. Juuhachigou only glanced at him, Goten was too busy staring at the mirror image of himself to even notice his elder brother`s attitude and ChiChi was a bit busy as well. Not seeing Goku in six years had given her enough of an excuse to literally throw herself at him.   
  
"Hi everyone!" Goku finally managed to say aloud as Uranai Baba began to float upward. "I`ll be back in 24 hours, Goku. It`s all I can do, good luck," she stated, floating up into the air and vanishing shortly afterward. "Thanks Baba!" Goku called out, actually finding the guts to swing ChiChi around in a hug as he did so. "Man... Everyone`s changed!" He exclaimed, looking at those he knew. "Even you, Piccolo," he pointed out. "Last I checked you were too co-"   
  
"I`m still a bastard Goku. I just figured out how to move my mouth into a smile now without bludgeoning someone," Piccolo explained.   
  
"Ahhhh... Yep, that explains that," Goku nodded. "Krillin... You`ve got hair!" Goku shouted in disbelief. "I thought I told you I kept it waxed away?" Krillin asked. "I don`t think so..." Goku replied. He was overwhelmed at the moment, going from person to person. "Even Eighteen`s changed," he mused, glancing over at the cyborg and then down at the little girl holding her hand. "Um, yeah... She`s kinda my wife now," Krillin pointed out, causing Goku to facefault. "And the name is Juuhachigou now," she corrected.   
  
"I`ll remember tha... What the heck?" Goku asked, finally realizing there was his equivelent to Mini-Me standing next to the Ox King. "D-did Gohan shrink or something?" He asked. "I`m Goten."   
  
ChiChi cut in. "He`s Gohan`s little brother. Your other son."   
  
_ "I have a second son?!"   
  
_ "Whoa..."   
  
Goten stuck a hand out in a befriending sort of way. "Nice to meet ya," he offered, only to find himself grabbed around the wrist and flung up into the air. Cackling with the glee of any child, Goten fell back down and right into Goku`s arms. "Wow, energetic little fella, aren`t ya!?" Goku asked.   
  
_ "So this is Son Goku..."_ Videl thought in surprise. By all means, he really did seem like the archetype people painted him as. _"So what has he done that has Gohan so upset at him?"_ She thought. Goku swung his youngest son around for almost a minute straight, then flung him up into the air again and tilted his head out of the way, causing Goten to flop down into a seated position on his left shoulder. It was about this point that he glanced over the remainder of the group, picking out the two people he had never remembered meeting.   
  
"Who are you two?" He asked Zangya and Videl. Zangya shrugged. "I think I know you from somewhere," he pointed out at Zangya. "About... Five years ago, I think?"   
  
"You must`ve been the ghost that decked the shit out of Bojack. Nice punch," she replied with a smirk. "Oh! You`re one of Bojack`s lackeys! Where`re the others?"   
  
"Former lackey, actually. And they`re all dead. Gohan and that Mirai Trunks guy killed them, then Gohan killed Bojack too. Twice," she explained. "That explains that," he mused. "And you are?" He asked, moving on to Videl. "Videl Satan, Hercule`s daughter. I`m a friend of Gohan`s," she answered, holding a hand out. He just stared for several seconds and then slapped himself on the forehead. "Oh man, things really _have_ changed," he said with a laugh. "Where is Gohan anyhow?"   
  
"He was right here a minute ago," ChiChi answered, looking around. "He`s probably at the arena by now. Which is where I`m going. See you Kakarot," Vegeta explained, turning around and walking away. Trunks stayed behind, waiting for Goten to hop off of Goku`s shoulder. "You ever coming down or what?" He asked with a bit of jealousy in his voice. "I take it you`re Trunks, huh?" Goku asked, reaching down to shake the boy`s hand. "That`s my name, don`t wear it out," he replied.   
  
"I`m Goku, Gohan and Goten`s dad," Goku introduced himself. "As if I didn`t know by now?" Trunks asked with a cynicism that defied his age, only to find himself flung up on Goku`s right shoulder. "I see Vegeta hasn`t changed very much at all over the years, huh?" He asked. "Nope, he still says he`s going to beat you come Hell or high water," Bulma answered as the group stopped and then finally broke in half. The fighters moved on towards the sign-up area, those who were just going to watch broke off to go get seats.   
  
"See ya after the tournament everyone!" Goku enthusiastically shouted as the group split. Videl gave a wave to her father, who was a bit distant at the moment and wading through the fans, in the literal sense, at waist height, giving a wave back to her after a few seconds. "Now where is Gohan?" He asked, glancing around as Trunks and Goten both hopped off of his shoulder.   
  
Inward of the sign-up booth, the answer had presented itself quite clearly as Goku spotted two silhouettes, one of which was almost gut wrenchingly familiar, the other of which just astonished him. Which was which, was anyone`s guess.   
  
As to who they were?   
  
  
"I take it you intend on finishing it off this time, correct?" Gohan asked, staring up at Cell Junior with a smirk. "Whatever happens, happens," came the blue carapaced warrior`s reply. "Shouldn`t you be clinging to papa`s pant leg instead of bothering me before the tournament?" He asked snidely. "He stopped being my dad years ago. Besides, I find it much more fun to watch you squirm," Gohan answered with just as snide a tone as his would-be enemy.   
  
"The day I squirm in fear of you is the day Hell freezes over and Goku wins a fight without tearing his shirts to ribbons," Cell replied. "How quaint, wonder how long it took you to think that one up?" Gohan asked. "All of the half a second it took me to stop staring at the six foot tall pile of shit standing in front of me like it actually meant something to me," Cell shot back. "Aww, I`m touched that you actually care enough about killing me to look away from the mirrror," Gohan mocked in reply. "At least I won`t be using my chin to plow the ring when we meet in the tournament," Cell retorted. "You`ll just be using the rest of your face instead then, I`m guessing," the shorter of the two fighters answered.   
  
"No thank you, your`s is more similar to a shovel so I`ll just use that instead," Junior exclaimed. "All talk, no game. Have you forgotten how badly I smacked you down _last time_ we fought?" Gohan asked. "And last time we fought, I turned your back into hamburger meat, blew you to smithereens and later laughed in your face before costing you the championship win," Cell stated. "And I blew your head off, both of your arms and wings as well, and I think I tore one of your legs off as well, don`t remember that part."   
  
"That was when I blew you up, I believe," Cell clarified, trying to remember just what had transpired in that fight. Having your head blown off wasn`t a very good way to keep all of your memories, after all. "Not sure either..." Gohan said while thoughtfully rubbing his chin.   
  
"Oh look, it`s afro man and the legion of silly shits," Cell stated, glancing over Gohan`s head at the incoming numbers of fighters. "Oh well then," Gohan shrugged. "Indeed. See you in the tournament asspipe," Cell stated. "See you in Hell, Blubie," Gohan replied. "_**STOP CALLING ME THAT!!!**_"   
  
"Make me."   
  
"If it wasn`t against the rules to kill you _before_ the tournament, I sure as shit would!" Cell yelled while storming off.   
  
"Game, set, match. Round two to Son Gohan, score: One to one," Gohan said to himself before wrapping his arms around the back of his head and letting out a soft chuckle, ignorant of the looks he was getting from half of the people who had been walking up on him.   
  
_ There's much more for us to see  
A brand new day for you and me  
And with confidence I say...  
  
_ "Well, _you`ve_ sure changed..." Goku called out in surprise as the group filed into a line at the sign-up booth.   
  
"Don`t we all?" Gohan asked, turning around and facing Goku with a look of emotions mixed enough to confuse even the best of psychologists.   
  
There was a pause.   
  
_ And I don't know where this will lead  
But in my life you need to be  
Cause I need to say...  
  
_ "Hello again... Dad," Gohan stated with a wry half-smile while Vegeta walked by. It wasn`t the smile one would expect of a son who hadn`t seen his father in six years, it was more the smile of an old rival who didn`t know whether to hate someone or love them like family.   
  
"Long time no see, Gohan," Goku replied with a smile, genuinely unsure of what to think at his son`s behavior. "Long time no see."   
  
_

End Part Two   
  


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_**Author`s Note:** Hope you enjoyed, leave a review please! And if you want fighting, don`t worry cause you`ll get it soon enough... Lots of it :P  
  
_Sh33p_ out. 


	3. Too Bad

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


**Hybrid Theory: Generations   
**_Too Bad   
  
  
_

As the seconds ticked by, an abstract tension thick enough to cut with a knife filled the air. Trunks, Vegeta, Krillin and Zangya had all broken off from the main group, seperating into the men and women`s dressing rooms, leaving a semi-apathetic Juuhachigou, an overly quiet Videl, an anxious Goten and a collected, silent Piccolo to watch as father and son stood there in an awkward quiet. Registration had been fairly quick, bar how one of the workers had stopped to gawk at Goku in utter shock. From there it`d been a quick walk, during which Gohan and Goku had said nothing to each other, though anyone could spot the worried looks Goku was giving his eldest son.   
  
To be quite blunt, Goku was getting hit by the same apathetic treatment he had been the most afraid of. He`d been half ready if Gohan was _angry_ at him, he`d been praying Gohan had no reason to be angry for, but to be outright ignored aside from one greeting? One little hello? Goku was hurt by that. He`d taken pain, sure. Physical pain was akin to breathing for Goku these days, all of the training in Otherworld had seen to that, but emotional pain.   
  
No, that was on another level entirely.   
  
"Hope we didn`t keep you guys waiting too long," Krillin stated sheepishly while rejoining the group, Trunks and Vegeta not far behind. "Not at all," Goku replied to his old friend, resisting the urge to scruff Krillin`s hair just to watch him squirm a bit. The joking insult factor between Krillin and Goku was something that had never truly gone away once Goku`s naivete leveled off enough that he actually knew how to make one.   
  
"Where`s the blue bitch?" Vegeta intruded, glancing around impatiently. "Already waiting on you slack asses," Zangya replied from the doorway of the women`s dressing room. "Feh," Vegeta retorted simply enough, joining the rest of the group as the walk began towards the selection area, save for Trunks and Goten, who broke off and moved towards the Junior entree area, although they did so muttering curses under their breath.   
  
"I take it they wanted to fight in the Adult Division, huh?" Goku asked. He earned a collective shrug from most everyone but Vegeta. "You should have seen the last time they fought at a Budoukai," he stated. "It was like deja vu, right down to the beam duelling," he added a moment later. "And Trunks won."   
  
"Wow, how strong are they?" He asked. "Strong enough," Gohan answered cryptically. "I see. Super Saiyans yet?" He questioned. "They both went to it in the same fight at the last Budoukai. At three and four and a half each," Gohan calmly stated. Goku promptly fell over sideways in shock.   
  
"Are you Son Goku?" A new voice cut in from the right. The group in full glanced over to it`s source almost instantly, finding themselves confronted by two strangely dressed, absolutely mismatched looking men, one of which was hovering just a few inches off of the ground, the other of which was tall enough in size that Piccolo only came up to shoulder height in comparison. "Yeah," Goku finally replied after scraping himself up off the ground and moving to the head of the group.   
  
The short man spoke up, floating ahead of the taller a second later. "I`ve heard a great deal about you. In fact, I`ve wanted to spar you for quite some time..." He explained, pausing for a moment as if to size up the rest of the group. "Although I have no hope of winning. Still, I passed the preliminary strength tests and I do hope to face you in the tournament with any luck," he stated, extending his hand.   
  
"Uhm... Pleased to me you, I guess," Goku replied, shaking the smaller fellow`s hand with a little hesitation. "I`ve just heard you have a good spirit, that`s all. Glad to see the rumors were right," he stated before letting go and turning around. He and the larger man both walked away a few seconds later, quietly vacating the scene as abruptly as they`d made themselves known.   
  
"What was that about?" Videl asked. "I know them from somewhere," Piccolo thought aloud. "Guess the tournament`ll be interesting right off the bat then," Goku replied. "All because you shook hands with a purple skinned midget with a mohawk. Is something going on that we should know about Kakarot?" Vegeta taunted, earning the equivelent of a death glare from Goku.   
  
"I don`t even wanna know," Zangya cut in, ushering the group onward as the sounds began to trumpet the oncoming Junior tournament.   
  
  
"This`ll be boring, just like the last one," Trunks complained. As per the last one, chance had stuck he and Goten at opposite ends of the tournament. Goten on the other hand, just shrugged. "And I`ll beat you again. Just like last time," Trunks grumbled. "No you won`t," Goten replied snappily. "Sure I will, history always repeats itself when someone refuses to listen to it," Trunks pointed out. "You watch too many ducomentries... Er..."   
  
"Documentaries," Trunks corrected. "Yeah, that."   
  
"I`m still gonna win."   
  
"No you`re not."   
  
"Here we go again..."   
  
"You started it."   
  
"You started it," Trunks replied. "No no, you started it," Goten answered. "How did I start it?" Trunks asked. "You whined," Goten answered. "Well you started it!" Trunks growled. "How?" Goten asked. "... You were born!" Trunks yelled. "Uh..."   
  
"Yeah, I win," Trunks smugly stated. Goten paused and then spoke, again surpassing his years in the process. "What the hell just happened?"   
  
  
One by one, the people ticked by. Videl had gone first on the punching machine, as was tradition. It was quite a simple affair really, walk up, punch it as hard as you could(without breaking it if you were one of the Earth`s _real_ top fighters), then walk away and wait for the scorecard. Eight people had gone since then, and it was really wearing thin on Vegeta`s nerves to be stuck behind most of the other members of this little backward mudball`s elite class.   
  
So when he got up to the punching machine, after Goku, he did what was expected of him. He wound up, looked around and smirked.   
  
And then the remains of the punching machine plowed through three walls and later ground themselves into the side of a passenger plane. About sixty miles inland from South Capital. After this, he glanced around with that smirk of his still quite intact, and then spoke.   
  
"If anyone doesn`t have the guts to end up like the punching machine, get out while you can," he ordered. In unison, every single 'normal' fighter in the enclosed area promptly fled in a small stampede, leaving behind a small core group that comprised the fighting elites of the Earth, and possibly the rest of the universe as well. Son Goku, Son Gohan, Videl Satan, Vegeta, Piccolo Daimou Junior, Zangya, Juuhachigou Chestnut, Krillin Chestnut and a few other familiar faces.   
  
Chief among them being a hauntingly familiar man in his mid-twenties wearing the black and purple clothing of two former competitors, accompanied by another figure of about the same height and build, with similar clothing as well. Suta and Killa. Both had paled from the way they looked the last time they had been at a tournament, both had changed their styles of clothing as well. Killa wore only a pair of black pants, a purple sash-type belt and black boots. Suta wore a black and purple version of his old douji without the boxing gloves and featuring the same type of boots as Killa. Killa had gone blad, Suta`s hair had turned mottled gray and both looked as if they`d gone to Hell and come back with demons ground into their souls.   
  
To put it bluntly, one look into their eyes and you could tell that the lights were on, but nobody was home.   
  
After that, there was another prominent figure. Cell Junior stood at the edge of things as he had the last time around, glaring daggers through everyone in front of him clear to Gohan, who had been consumed by the act of shaking his head at Vegeta.   
  
"Well..." Zangya began, trailing off. "At least we know the _good_ fighters are the only ones left," Krillin finished for her. "Or the ones with a death wish," Goku corrected. "That too."   
  
"Hey, don`t blame me if it worked," Vegeta snorted. "May as well cut out the weak from the strong beforehand so that the real battles can start as quickly as possible," he explained in a Darwinistic logic a few seconds later. "Right," Piccolo agreed dully. "I think the Junior round is about to start, anyone wanna go watch it?" Krillin asked. "I`ll catch up with you, I`m gonna go get something to eat," Gohan replied, walking off in another direction from the group. Killa and Suta both twitched freely of one another and then left, heading off to some dark room here or there in the stadium to lounge around and wait for whatever they had planned for.   
  
Cell Junior just stood there in silence.   
  
The bell rang off in the distance and Goku turned around to go with the group, only to find them all cut off. The short fellow from earlier stood there, plain as day, his friend standing behind him as before. Unlike before, where he carried around a cryptic smile that looked outright sadistic, he now carried a look of foreboding.   
  
And for some unknown reason, the attendants had all left as well.   
  
"What the hell do you want?" Vegeta demanded rashly. "Quite a bit actually," the small figure replied. "My name... Doesn`t matter, you can call me Shin if you want though," he explained. "Big deal, now we know your name, now get out of the way," Vegeta ordered. "Not yet. Very soon, the two men you saw earlier, I believe their names are Suta and Killa, will attack one of you. It will be during the tournament most likely, and it won`t be a pleasant experience for whoever they choose to strike."   
  
"Why are you telling us this?" Goku asked.   
  
"Because I need them to succeed. Once they do what they have come for, they`ll leave, running back to their master-"   
  
"Babidee," Piccolo cut in. "I _knew_ this meant something," he added. "I take it they`ve been here before?" Shin asked. "At the past two tournaments. First it was just a creature calling itself Dabura, then there were also Spopovitch and Yamu. All of them but Dabura dressed similarly to those two and all of them, Dabura included, had the same 'M' symbol on their foreheads."   
  
"I see..." Shin paused thoughtfully. "Then they`ve been planning for a while... But that isn`t why I`m here. I`m here to ask that once the attack begins, none of you move to aid whoever they`re attacking. My assistant, Kibito, will be able to heal the damage, and possibly make the victim stronger through the process of recovery, but the attack has to succeed either way. Otherwise this cycle they seem to have will continue until they`ve gathered enough energy to unleash the most vile, evil creature in all of history upon this world."   
  
"And then the universe," Kibito added. "Do I have your agreement?" Shin asked. Most of the group paused, save for Piccolo. "Count me in," the Namek stated briskly. "Me too," Goku added. "If Kakarot`s in, I`m in," Vegeta added onto that. "And if Goku`s in, I guess so`re the rest of us," Krillin defeatedly sighed. "Good," Shin said. "I suggest the lot of us wait in the fighter`s lounge for now, that will be the most likely area that the attack will occur in," he added.   
  
"Hold up," Zangya said. She glanced over her shoulder at Cell. "What about you? You in or what?" She asked.   
  
"It`ll be another cold day in Hell before I agree to work with anyone but my brothers and father," Cell Junior replied. "Well, I think that answers that," Zangya shrugged.   
  
A few seconds later, the group began to move off towards the fighter`s lounge again, though it again came to a pause as Videl spoke up, tugging Goku aside as she did so.   
  
"What?" He asked. "Since we have time to waste, why don`t you go try to patch things up with Gohan?" She asked. "He seems mad at you about something and since you`re probably only going to be here for... How long?"   
  
"One day," he answered.   
  
"Then why not try to use the time you have?" Videl asked. "I think I will. Thanks," Goku answered, turning away from the group with a wave. "I`ll be back soon, tell Goten and Trunks I said good luck," he offered while vanishing down into the hallway Gohan had taken earlier.   
  
"Was wondering who`d say that," Krillin mumbled. Once more, the group began walking towards the lounge.   
  
  
As for the junior`s tournament? It was about as exciting as watching paint dry for the first few matches. It had still been only the opening round of things and around ten of the forty-eight match ups had gone by, leaving Trunks and Goten to idly watch things on the sidelines. Trunks had another fourteen matches to go before he was up, Goten had another fifteen. They were back to back but in different blocks. It was probably the largest junior tournament in Tenkaichi history, though it was probably also the most boring.   
  
"This. Sucks. Ass," Trunks grumbled as the bell rang for the eleventh match to begin. "Yep," Goten agreed, sipping on a can of some soft drink or another as he did so. "How`d you get that?" Trunks asked. Goten shrugged. "Jack told me I could just punch through a canned drink machine and pull it out," Goten replied. Trunks blinked. "You vanlised-" "Van_da_lized," Goten corrected. "-A canned drink machine?" Trunks asked. "Uh... Yeah, why? Is that bad?" Goten asked.   
  
"Gnah," Trunks uttered before falling over. "I can get one for ya if you want," Goten offered curiously. Trunks got back up and sheepishly shook his head. "No thanks," he mumbled. "Hey everyone," Goten greeted without even turning to face the arriving group of adults and semi-adults, having sensed their arrival before they even came into the room.   
  
"Anyone have a clue what happened to that drink machine back there?" Krillin asked while taking a seat at one of the small windows.   
  
Goten and Trunks exchanged sideways glances, but said nothing.   
  
  
Among Saiyans of old Vegeta, there went a plainly evident truth that only the former prince of the world could recall in it`s entirety anymore. 'Depressed? Eat. Injured? Eat. Wife dumped you and your tail got cut off? Eat. Whenever something bad happens, just eat and you`ll feel better.' The saying was one of the oldest in the language actually, spoken in words native to the old Saiyan language practiced before the race had been blown off of Saiya by the Legendary Super Saiyan. There were actually seven or eight worlds that held descendants of refugees from Saiya, but that isn`t the point.   
  
The point is that food was the Saiyan equivelent to prozac and valium combined. Food made the Saiyan homeworld go round. If a Saiyan had a problem they couldn`t fix, they`d eat and then fix it later. It all had something to do with how the Saiyan digestive track held some sort of connection to the brain`s pleasure centers, and while the effect was lesser for a half-breed Saiyan, it was still quite apparent.   
  
Right now, Gohan was doing his own bit of unintentional research into the matter with himself as the guinea pig. Emphasis on pig. Twelve buckets of chicken bones and ten empty bowls of rice sat to either side of him on the table, which was large enough to accomodate around eight people but was currently filled with food for one. Half of it had been eaten.   
  
And yes, he was feeling a little better. Not that much, but hey... It`s a start.   
  
_ "Didn`t think I was that hungry,"_ he mused to himself. _"Good for a light brunch though,"_ he added.   
  
"Wow, nice snack ya got there," a new voice cut in from behind before a hand laid itself across Gohan`s shoulder. _"So much for my appetite,"_ Gohan thought sourly as the hand held him firmly to his seat. "Care to talk?" Goku asked. "I`d much rather eat," Gohan replied. "Room for two?" Goku asked. Gohan glanced across the table and shrugged. "Suppose so, just don`t touch the three layer chocolate cake, that`s _my_ dessert," Gohan replied with a mock threatening tone to his voice.   
  
At least Goku thought it was mock threat...   
  
_ Fathers hands were lined with dirt   
From long days in the field   
And mothers hands are serving meals   
In a cafe on Main Street   
With mouths to feed   
Just trying to keep clothing on our backs   
  
_ To watch the way food vanished off of the table over the course of the next five minutes was enough to discourage someone from eating for a month straight. Even a Saiyan, since even by Saiyan standards, Goku`s appetite was disgustingly large. Both of his sons had inherited it as well, though Goten and Gohan had managed to at least learn manners somewhere along the line whilst stuffing their faces. Goku had never really understood the meaning of manners at a dinner table, but he tried to at least avoid spilling food on anyone else. For one it was hard to eat off of someone`s clothes.   
  
After that though, finally, the talking began. Perhaps the first coherent chat between the two in over half a decade that involved something _other_ than killing the next major bad guy. "So..." Goku tried to think of a way to start off. Gohan just supressed a belch and scooted back from the table before standing up. "If it`s all the same to you, I think I`m gonna go for a walk," he stated. "Good idea, mind if I join you?" Goku asked, determined not to allow Gohan to walk away that easily.   
  
"Sure," the younger of the two shrugged. None of the waiters had the guts to try and tell them to pay for the food. Anyone who had heard of Son Goku`s reputation and seen the kind of things his children were both capable of thought far more carefully than to argue with them. People had a habit of not looking behind the ways others spoke of famous people.   
  
"Coming?" Gohan asked. Goku attempted to haul himself up out of his seat only to find that the back legs gave out and left him rolling backwards with a loud thud. "Gimme a minute," Goku complained, springing back up a few seconds later.   
  
The two walked out of the small resturaunt after that. Eventually of course, they ended up on one of the walkways above and behind the stands, just as Trunks finally got his match. "So..." Goku tried to think of a way to begin again. "So?" Gohan asked. The kid who was fighting Trunks let out a scream and flew by, a fist-sized imprint in his cheek.   
  
"How`ve things been without me around?" Goku finally got the nerve to ask. "Pretty good I guess. Had a few adventures, met new friends, new enemies... Heck, one of `em let me know Goten was going to be my little brother`s name and his appearance would be exactly like you about a month or two before he was born," Gohan explained. "How`s that?" Goku asked. Trunks had just left the ring at the moment and Capel introduced Goten.   
  
"Went on a trip through a passage of time. I even know I`m effectively fated to be soul mates to that Videl girl you met earlier," he answered. Goku paused briefly and then blinked. "You`re kidding me, right?" He asked. "Nope, the gaurdian of time told me so herself," Gohan replied. Goku blinked again and then slumped sideways against the railing, his knees yeilding to his own weight unintentionally. "Man Gohan... You`ve... You grew up!" He said in disbelief.   
  
"What can I say? I`m not that little kid running around in a Chinese-styled philosopher`s robe," Gohan retorted. "Yeah. You`re not," Goku agreed, almost regretfully. "I just wish it had all turned out differently. I wish I`d known ChiChi was pregnant, I wish I could`ve been there for Krillin`s wedding, I wish I could`ve been there when you faced off with Cell Junior," he stated. "But you weren`t," Gohan cut in.   
  
"I know."   
  
"Do you?" Gohan asked. "You should`ve seen Mom when I told her you died. Again. I think you were dead to me already and I didn`t know it but I don`t think she`s ever gotten over it," he added. "What do you mean 'dead already?'" Goku asked. Goten`s would-be opponent slapped into the wall beneath them, leaving a cracked imprint before tumbling out. He left the ring a few seconds later.   
  
"Exactly what I said. I think you died to me the day you went Super Saiyan in front of Frieza," Gohan replied. "Were you ever even there to begin with?" He questioned. Goku felt like someone had just slapped him in the face. "What`s that supposed to mean? I did what I had to do and you know tha-" "Point being?" Gohan asked coldly. Goku snorted. "I was over the edge Gohan, I don`t even think I knew what I was doing at the time," he replied. "And what about before that?"   
  
"What are you getting at?"   
  
_ And all I hear about is   
How it's so bad, it's so bad   
  
_ Down in the lounge, Piccolo stared up at the two figures in the stands, which at the distance appeared to be one orange speck and one black speck. "Do you think it was a good idea to suggest that, Videl?" He asked. "Good as any," Zangya cut in. "I wasn`t asking you," Piccolo growled. "And that`s what I would`ve answered," Videl replied. "Hah," Zangya snorted. "And here they go again," Krillin mused as Zangya and Piccolo began to go into a lengthy tirade of insults back and forth.   
  
"And this surprises you? Shit, I think they argue more than Bulma and I," Vegeta retorted. "Vegeta, that`s technically impossible," Videl said with a shake of the head. "I`m with her, you two bi-" "Shut it midget," Vegeta cut Krillin off. "Shut it midget," Krillin echoed with his prissiest tone of voice, earning a death glare as a result. "Shutting it," he replied. "Better," Vegeta stated.   
  
_ It's too bad, it's too bad   
Too late, so wrong, so long   
It's too bad that we had no time to rewind   
Let's walk, let's talk   
Let's talk   
  
_ "What I`m getting at is that I don`t think I ever even had a father," Gohan replied. "You were only there what... The first four and a half years? Then you were either dead, fighting or off in space training," he explained. "Because I wanted to protect you all better than I could at the time," Goku shot back. "You could`ve done so by actually being there, the Earth almost got taken out twice with you gone. The first time by Garlic Junior, the second by Frieza and his dad," Gohan countered. "And how was I supposed to know?" Goku answered.   
  
"You just made my point for me," Gohan calmly stated. "How were you supposed to know if you were elsewhere training?" He asked. Goku didn`t reply. "And what about mom? I`m not half as upset about what happened with me as I am with her, Goten too. She had two nervous breakdowns during the years you were gone, and tried suicide at least once during the year we were training for the Saiyans," he grimly explained. "And Goten... He`s a time bomb waiting to go off if the Mirai version of him that I met is any indication. The kid talks to things that aren`t there and has a well of energy he can`t seem to deplete." Goku shook his head.   
  
"You have a well of energy in you too Gohan," he stated. "I saw that the first time when you slammed Radditz off of my chest and almost killed him with one hit. And before that when you instinctively blew a hole through a tree as an infant," he explained. "Therein lies my point. Goten`s well isn`t the same as mine. He doesn`t have to be very angry to pull ki out and he doesn`t seem to have any built in stopping mechanisms like I do."   
  
"He`s also a child genius."   
  
"So were you."   
  
"By child genius I mean... Literally. Sure I`m smart, but Goten? He`s literally a genius. Not just at fighting like you, or even mathematics, _everything_ he does, he excels at."   
  
"So?"   
  
"Did I mention he learned how to do Kame Hame Ha at three and a half without ever having heard of or seen it in action? And that he instinctively had the kind of skill you or I have with it?" Gohan asked. Goku facefaulted. "Exactly."   
  
"Well..."   
  
"And what about me? I had a nervous breakdown a few years ago myself. Know what happened? Know who was there to bring me down at the end of it?" Gohan asked. "Piccolo? Vegeta?" Goku asked. "No. Cell," Gohan explained. "_Eh_?!" Goku yelped. "Yeah. Did you hear me screaming that night, _Daddy_?" Gohan asked. "How could I? I wasn`t there..."   
  
"Exactly."   
  
_ You left without saying goodbye   
Although I'm sure you tried   
You call and ask from time to time   
To make sure we're alive   
But you weren't there   
Right when I'm needing you the most   
  
_ Goku calmly drew in several breaths and sat down on the floor, leaned against the railing with a fairly defeated expression. Perhaps the first he`d made in his entire life. "You were only there for me... What? Twice? Three times? Hell, I`m still angry about what happened at the Cell Games."   
  
"Gohan..."   
  
"Don`t 'Gohan' me. I was getting my ribs ground into powder and you just stood there until Piccolo was ready to kill himself trying to save me," Gohan angrily bit out. "Do you know what that felt like?"   
  
"And do you know what it feels like to look into your only son`s eyes and see Death staring back at you?" Goku asked back, glancing up at Gohan. "Sit down," he ordered. Gohan didn`t. "Sit. Down," Goku ordered again. Gohan finally complied. "What was that supposed to mean?"   
  
"You didn`t see the look you had in your eyes when I saw you walk out of the rock outcropping Cell threw you into," Goku finally answered. "Even worse when you finally went to the second level," he added. "I remember seeing nothing but Death in your eyes. That`s the only way I know to describe it," he finished. "And I saw worse in your eyes when you were on Namek fighting Frieza after transforming," Gohan replied hotly. "I wasn`t torturing him, now was I?" Goku answered with a bit of malice. Gohan didn`t reply.   
  
"Why did you choose to stay dead? The real reason," Gohan demanded. It had been another thing that cut into Goku like a knife. "What`s _that_ supposed to mean," Goku demanded. "Only what I asked," Gohan replied. Goku didn`t answer at first.   
  
"I chose to stay dead because I was depressed as well. You don`t understand, I`ve been fighting and protecting the Earth since I was only twelve, Gohan," Goku answered. "And I`ve been fighting to protect the Earth since I was three*, your point?" Gohan asked. Goku paused. "I was sick of trying to fight through every new enemy that came along, I was sick of protecting a planet I really wasn`t even from and I was sick of people gunning for me every other day. I needed time away from the Earth, Gohan. Just like I needed time away from my responsibilities," he confessed.   
  
"So you just abandoned it all to go train to your heart`s content with a bunch of dead guys. Just like I thought," Gohan growled, beginning to get up. "I`m not finished yet," Goku stated. "And I don`t care," Gohan replied, only to find his wrist grabbed. Goku yanked him back down. "I`m not finished yet," he said again. "Then finish," Gohan ordered. "I had my own problems to work through. I`ve literally gone to Hell a dozen times. I even finally got to know my parents," he exclaimed. "Whoop-de-doo." "I disowned both of them," Goku coldly stated. That caught Gohan off gaurd a bit. "Why?"   
  
_ And now I dream about it   
How it's so bad, it's so bad   
  
_ "They weren`t there for me even worse than I was for you. If anything, _they_ disowned _me_ the moment I was born," Goku said. "So then I guess disowning one`s parents is now some sort of family tradition," Gohan mused. "I wish it wasn`t," Goku replied.   
  
_ It's too bad, it's too bad   
Too late, so wrong, so long   
It's too bad that we had no time to rewind   
Let's walk, let's talk   
Let's talk   
  
_ "And what about you, Gohan? How many bad things have I missed out on?" Goku cynically questioned. "I`ve seen my soul mate in another lifetime die, watched thousands get massacred by a billion year old demon, confronted Radditz, killed Bojack twice, murdered two of his underlings and torn down a warrior named Dabura in two battles. I`ve also been driven half insane by Cell Junior twice and ended up half dead to boot in the first encounter I had with him," Gohan responded. "Care to explain?" Goku asked.   
  
He recieved only a sideways glare in reply.   
  
"I want to make things right," Goku explained. "You can`t," Gohan replied. "Why?" Goku asked.   
  
_ Father's hands are lined with guilt   
For tearing us apart   
  
_ "Because the damage was done too long ago to fix," Gohan answered coldly. "How so? Say`s who?" Goku demanded. "Say`s me," Gohan answered. "Like I`m going to take that one lying down?" Goku asked. "Like I care what you do?" Gohan asked. Goku snorted. "Coming from you, that hurts a lot more than you know," he stated. "And it didn`t hurt me growing up the way I did?" Gohan asked.   
  
"No. It did hurt. And I`m betting it hurt a lot, but I can`t change the past," Goku explained. "Then don`t try," Gohan ordered annoyedly. "Make me."   
  
_ Guess it turned out in the end   
Just look at where we are   
  
_ Gohan chuckled while hauling himself up to his feet, followed instantly by Goku. "That`s just like you," he stated, smirking. "And that`s a bad thing?" Goku asked. "Not at all. Welcome home Dad," Gohan replied, giving his father a bearhug. Goku finally managed to return the treatment, standing there for several seconds before patting Gohan on the back.   
  
"Good to be back, even if it`s only for a day," the elder of the two stated. "Wonder how much carnage you`ll cause this time?" Gohan mused, a half joke and a half insult. "Hey!" Goku grumbled. "Think we`ll be paired in the tournament?" Gohan asked, switching subjects pretty quickly in an unspoken language that had existed between he and Goku since their days in the Room of Spirit and Time. In effect, for them, it meant something along the lines of 'Sorry, I`m over it' when one or the other spoke of fighting without death being involved.   
  
"I hope so," Goku replied. "I doubt I`ll get much of a challenge unless it`s you or Vegeta. How good is that Zangya girl? And what about Piccolo?" Goku asked. "Vegeta`s got a ways to go, Zangya and Piccolo are both pretty much even with him though," Gohan explained, cutting off a response as well. "But if we do meet in the tournament, don`t expect me to go easy on you. I still have a lot of pent up aggression begging to be let out, yanno..."   
  
"I wouldn`t have it any other way," Goku replied.   
  
_ Made it out, still got clothing on our backs   
And now I scream about it   
How it's so bad, it's so bad   
  
_ "Are those two ever coming down?" Krillin mumbled. "Be nice if I actually got to _see_ Goku again for once," he added. "They`ll be down when they`re ready," Piccolo replied. "Wow, stringbean say`s something useful!" Zangya insulted. "Stuff it grass bitch," Piccolo growled. "Looks like the championship is beginning," Videl cut them off, to Krillin and Juu`s mutual relief. Shin and Kibito stood by, the entire time exchanging little more than sideways glances at the behavior of the other members of the group.   
  
It's too bad, it's too bad   
Too late, so wrong, so long   
It's too bad that we had no time to rewind   
Let's walk, let's talk   
Let's talk   
  
  
The bell rang loudly in Goku and Gohan`s ears, leaving the two to smirk at each other. "Care to go watch your little brother take home the gold?" Goku asked. "Sure, why not. Just don`t lag behind me ya old git," Gohan teased. "Old!? I`m only 37!" Goku whined.   
  
"Old fart."   
  
"Whipper snapper."   
  
"... Eh?"   
  
"Hah!"   
  
"What the Hell just happened?" Gohan asked, staring at his father. "I`m not as dumb and naive as people think," Goku replied with that perpetually happy expression he hadn`t worn since he himself had only been twelve or so.   
  
"Uh..."   
  
"No time, last one, let`s _go_!" Goku shouted, taking off down the rampway towards the ring. Gohan slapped himself in the forehead. "He _would_ run through the crowd and the ring to get to the lounge," he grumbled to himself with an unwitting smile.   
  
"Guess miracles do happen," he added a few seconds later before languidly jumping after Goku. Hell, he wasn`t going to let his dad steal the show again, was he?   
  


_ End Part Three  
  
_

* * *

  
  
**Author`s Note:** * = in the last part, I stated Yamcha`s last name as Soza. I`m not sure if anyone else has done that, and I`m not sure if it`s his real name but ah well... In this part, * because of the first Garlic Junior movie. Remember that Gohan`s memory of the times when he unlocked his powers as a child came back to him a few stories ago, as such he can remember Garlic Jr`s first attack. The age of three is purely conjecture since it seemed to be before the series by a little bit of time.  
  
**Please** leave a review if you`re reading, Sh33p out.  
  



	4. The Kids Arent Alright

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


**Hybrid Theory: Generations**  
_ The Kids Aren`t Alright_  
  
  
  


It was the second-to-last match of the Tenkaichi Budoukai junior division, and Goten looked a bit antsy. It wasn`t a matter of knowing he could or couldn`t make it to the finals, it was that singular thought that ran through any normal kid`s mind when they had to do something in front of friends and family. He`d done good ignoring the rest of the crowds but now he had to deal with his father and his brother both being _right_ there. He had to make it look good, right? The other boy, a kid about twice his size - as most of the other junior competitors were - walked along looking like a combination of scared witless and over confident.   
  
"Don`t kill him by accident!" Gohan cheered at his younger sibling, leaning lazily against the frame of the door. Trunks stood leaned in a similar manner against the sign that was in the doorway, hidden from the view of the crowd while trying to emulate Gohan. Vegeta was standing straight next to Goku, gazing into the ring boredly.   
  
"This isn`t going to be very interesting," he grumbled. "Well, at least it`s almost over..." Goku replied with a shrug. "Any bets on how bad Goten mangles the poor kid?" Zangya asked cynically. "Twenty on a broken jaw and at least two missing teeth," Krillin responded. "Twenty on two cracked ribs and a punctured lung," Zangya replied. "Twenty on neither," Videl offered. She was currently leaning over the top of the sign, most of her weight supported on her elbows since she was off the ground almost entirely.   
  
The bell rang and Zangya and Krillin glanced over to Videl with similar looks of curiosity. There were a few grunts before Gohan fell over laughing. Goku just blinked and Vegeta looked unenthused. "He`s carrying the other kid out of the ring by his ear," Videl reported in dull shock. "You win," Krillin grumbled. "I`ll pay you after the tournament," he added. "Same," Zangya agreed. Juu and Piccolo were quietly standing off to the side of the group, one of them keeping a close eye on Kibito and Shin, the smaller of whom stood amongst the group itself.   
  
"And Son Goten wins it!" Capel called out expectantly as Goten dragged the other boy to the edge of the ring and then carefully chucked him over the edge. "So it looks like we`ll be in for a repeat of the battle waged three years ago at the 26th Tenkaichi Budoukai!" He stated, still not surprised in the least. Sure, he`d been surprised before but...   
  
Seeing Goku again and learning he was back from the dead for one day only kind of wore away any ability to feel shock that the blonde haired man had. At this point, he just wanted to live to see the end of the tournament and go home at the end of the day. In one piece.   
  
"I guess that means I`m up. Finally," Trunks commented to himself, hopping up off of the floor and rounding the sign with his hands held on his gi`s belt, a look of absolute seriousness covering his face.   
  
"_This_ should be good," Goku stated. "Oh it will. And Trunks will repeat his win just like the last time they fought, and then I`ll laugh at you before beating the shi-" "Shut up Vegeta," Piccolo, Juu, Zangya and Videl all said at once. "Fine. Not my fault you idiots don`t know when to lis-" "Shut up Vegeta," they said again. He grumbled something incoherently and turned his attention back to the ring, where Trunks was ascending the steps.   
  
"These two are great friends outside the ring, they usually play spy games together in the countryside and they`ve displayed excellent sportsmanship in their previous battle, but what makes them tick?" Capel asked. "Let`s find out, shall we?" He asked the crowd, earning a 'yes' in reply. As such, his microphone soon found itself placed next to Goten`s face.   
  
"What makes you fight, Goten?" He asked, expecting the answer to be something that`d floor him senseless. "Uhhh..." Goten stammered. He`d been working long and hard to keep serious and now Capel was throwing him off entirely! "`Cause I do?" He asked in reply, giving off one of the single most naively honest expressions in history as he did so. Capel sweatdropped and then turned to Trunks. "And what about you, Trunks?" He asked. "Because I`m going to be the best someday no matter how long it takes," the older of the two boys replied with a seriousness beyond his own years.   
  
"Fighting words indeed, and words of confidence. Let`s give it up for these two one more time, folks!" Capel yelled to the crowd, who yelled back five times as loud. "Ready?!"   
  
  
"Just get that idiot out of the ring," Vegeta growled. "He`s just doing his job," Goku defended. "He`s still an idiot," Vegeta snorted. "This from the guy who`s Bulma Briefs` common-law-husband," Zangya snickered. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He demanded. "Nothing at all..."   
  
  
"**_FIGHT!!!_**"   
  
Trunks lowered into a fighting stance almost instantly, Goten stood back and waited though, standing straight with his hands balled into fists at his sides. To say a level of anxiety that shouldn`t have been felt for a fight between two children had overtaken the crowd would`ve been a vast understatement. Their previous war at the last Tenkaichi Budoukai still registered fresh and clear in people`s minds. Half the crowd was probably expecting of some sort of super energy blast that`d take out the island as the opening attack.   
  
What they got instead was a burst of movement as Trunks and Goten darted towards each other, only to change course at the last possible second and zing off to the Western side of the ring, stopping on a dime before exchanging a series of blurred punches and kicks. Trunks managed to barely overtake Goten however, dodging a kick and delivering his fist into the other`s chin in a manner that caused Goten to hobble backwards on one foot before Trunks swept his leg out.   
  
  
"Wow, those two aren`t that bad," Goku acknowledged in surprise. "Just wait`ll they _really_ get going," Gohan replied. Shin frowned deeply.   
  
  
Goten hadn`t even hit the ground when he had twisted around and righted himself, shooting a leg out and cracking the side of his foot across Trunks` face hard enough to send the other off of his feet and out of the ring.   
  
In any normal match, that would`ve been the deciding blow. In any normal match, Trunks would`ve landed face first and been disqualified because of it. In any normal match. This was not a normal match however, it`s competitors couldn`t even claim to be normal if you paid them(though they`d certainly try for the right amount of candy and toys). In a blast of dust, Trunks darted up and away from the ground, never touching it once. In a straight, backwards line, he was up in the air with his right hand glowing brightly before he threw the first ki blast of the match.   
  
"Kame Hame Ha!" Goten responded, shooting off a low powered beam up at the blast and overtaking it completely. Trunks twisted out of the way and cupped his hands forward, powering up and firing off a string of low powered spheres of energy. Each one spun almost out of control while the group moved into a mandala-type formation and screamed in on Goten. The youngest Son lowered his hands from the Kame Hame Ha stance and then jumped backwards, flipping out of the way. Three of Trunks` attacks blasted into the ring, the other five continued on like heat seeking missiles.   
  
"Keep moving," Jack ordered. Goten listened, flying up and leading the attacks up after him before finally stopping and turning around. "What the hell are you thinking?!" Jack screamed.   
  
Goten ignored him this time, diving towards the incoming attack before halting in mid-air and blurring out. He reappeared to the right, then below his former position, then to the left of that, rounding the mandala-styled energy attack with a good bit of skill before throwing out a trio of his own small blasts, just enough to set off Trunks` own.   
  
Three explosions rang through the air high above the ring, followed by another two when the first three set off the final pair of what remained of Trunks` efforts.   
  
Goten looked over at the other boy with a smirk, which was returned in kind.   
  
"Not bad," Trunks admitted. "Nice try," Goten replied.   
  
_ When we were young the future was so bright  
The old neighborhood was so alive  
And every kid on the whole damn street  
Was gonna make it big and not be beat  
  
_ "Ready for round two?" Trunks asked, placing his hands out to his sides and beginning to really power up. "After you," Goten said, though he was really getting words from Jack at this point. The boy wasn`t much of a conversationalist if Jack wasn`t helping him out. "Well then..." Trunks began, his eyes fading to teal and his hair starting to rise as a faint golden glow appeared around his body.   
  
"**_FINAL FLASH!!!_**" Trunks screamed, throwing his hands forward while flaring right up into Super Saiyan. The attack to follow was instant, his hair hadn`t even finished turning gold by the time the blast launched itself towards Goten. In kind, Goten`s hair blazed up into a crown, flaring an unlikely shade of crimson before turning entirely gold, an effect shared by his eyes during their transition from black to teal, as well as his aura. "Batter up," Goten heard but didn`t acknowledge from Jack, winding his arms up behind his body and then forcibly smacking it straight up into the sky.   
  
Trunks` attack spun out somewhere in low orbit and detonated once it passed the distance of the moon, leaving the two boys back at square one with a few changes. "Wanna try that again?" Trunks snorted. "Nah..."   
  
  
"Holy..." Goku gaped at the two boys, utterly shocked. "How the heck did they learn to do that?!" He asked. "They`re better than they look," Piccolo replied. "I`ll say," Goku mumbled. "Good lookin` kid too," he commented on the side about Goten. "Never thought _you_ to be one to brag about your looks, Kakarot," Vegeta taunted. "Does look like me, huh?" Goku asked naively.   
  
"Your stupidity never ceases to amaze me," Vegeta uttered.   
  
_ "Children... This is almost unacceptable..."   
  
_   
Trunks flew forward with a yell, Goten blurred out of the way and reappeared in the ring again, dropping out of a fall and into a crouch right as Trunks reappeared above him, shown to be in the pose of a twisting kick that almost mirrored Vegeta`s styling, gracefully soaring over Goten`s head. In near slow motion, Goten rose back up, ki in hand, before slapping Trunks hard on the back of the head.   
  
The older of the two let out a growl and skidded along on the surface of the ring, kicking up sparks from the friction of his own body against the tiles. Goten was running along barely three or four feet behind him when Trunks reached the edge of the ring and swung himself up onto his hands, cartwheeling his way over a sweeping kick. The two were on their feet at the same moment, with Goten taking the offensive by lancing out with a series of sweeping punches and jabs towards Trunks` face, each of which the other somehow dodged, ending in stalemate when Trunks jumped back and spun out towards the center of the ring.   
  
Goten single mindedly followed after him, blazing along a few inches off the ground with his hands held up and behind himself, a ball of ki glowing into existence between them. Trunks blasted upward and Goten slammed the attack into the ground, springing up off of it and bouncing along on the surface of the ring while the ball of energy drilled in and detonated.   
  
Trunks yelled and threw his hand out in Goten`s direction, causing the ring around the other to cave in several inches from an unseen blast of ki, and causing Goten to crunch downward through it and almost into the ground beneath the ring itself.   
  
Goten sprang back out of the crater, spiraling towards Trunks in a golden blur, but the other boy held a bit more speed and agility than Goten had anticipated, inching back out of the way and flipping forward, crashing both legs into Goten`s shoulder and sending him out of control and further up into the air. Trunks paused, looking thoughtful for a moment before snapping his fingers and putting his hands at the side.   
  
"Kame..." He began, trying to think of how Goten had performed the attack. A bluish glow formed at his side in the process. "Uhh..." He paused. "Um..."   
  
_ "Damn it, how does Goten do this again?"_ He asked himself. Despite the fact that Trunks wasn`t gifted enough to know some of the attacks used by masters he`d never even seen or heard much of, he still had a great deal of raw talent in his own right. "_Kame Ha_!" He yelled, thrusting his hands forward and watching an awkward looking ball of energy fly out at Goten, who stared at it for a moment and then caught it in his left hand, forcing the attack to a stand still before clutching it like a ball.   
  
"It`s Kame _Hame_ Ha," he corrected. "Get it right if you`re gonna rip me off!" Goten yelled, chucking the attack over his shoulder and into the sky. "... Who said I was ripping you off? Or that I was done yet?" Trunks asked. "Eh?"   
  
"Look up, nitwit," Trunks replied, pointing above Goten.   
  
  
"Anyone have any clue what they`re doing?" Videl asked. "Look`s like they`re just... Talking," Goku replied.   
  
_ Now the neighborhood's cracked and torn  
The kids are grown up but their lives are worn  
How can one little street  
Swallow so many lives  
  
_ "_**EEEEEE!!!**_" Goten screamed, flinging himself out of the way as a massive beam of energy shot down from the clouds above, lancing down into the ring and plowing straight through it before exploding up into another beam from within the small crater that had formed at the center of the ring. Goten yelped again and flipped sideways out of the way, barely avoiding having his rear end set ablaze by the bolt of energy.   
  
"Say hello to my _new_ attack," Trunks bragged. "The Kame Kame Ha," he stated with pride. "You only came up with that because you screwed it up the first time," Goten retorted sardonically. "_Shut up_!" Trunks yelled.   
  
_  
"Not right at all,"_ Shin thought at the spectacle. Like everyone else, he`d been impressed, but he wasn`t paying full attention to the battle by any means. His eyes were set on the figures standing ominously out of sight of most of the crowd, staring at an instrument of some kind. _"Perhaps I should tell them to not allow it..."_   
  
The relatively young(six million years in a race that lived a billion years on average wasn`t very much) god tasked with watching after the universe paused briefly, shaking his head in a guilty fashion. _"No. The lives of quadrillions hang in the balance. One potential sacrifice is worth averting the death of the universe,"_ he reasoned, though it left him sickened to do so. _"If it were one of the others, it would be easier. As it stands... I`ll just have to put my faith in Kibito`s healing talents,"_ he thought while turning back towards the fight.   
  
"Be ready," he muttered lowly enough that only Kibito and Piccolo could hear it. Kibito gave a mere nod. He didn`t seem to share his master`s care over the matter, but Kibito had lived to the ripe old age of fifty million years, half the average full lifespan of any other Dai Kaio, and it had left him more than a little arrogant when it came to dealing with people who lived and died in the literal blink of an eye compared to him.   
  
"They`re really going at it!" Goku exclaimed, watching Trunks and Goten drop back into the ring and bounce around, exchanging punches and kicks every single step and jump of the way. "Guess they got a little more ruthless about each other after their last fight," Gohan surmised.   
  
"Common laws of ego, brat," Vegeta began to explain. "If I didn`t know they were half breeds, I`d swear they were full Saiyans," he stated. "How so?" Goku asked. "If you haven`t figured it out by thirty seven human years, Kakarot, it isn`t worth bothering to explain," the other replied mockingly.   
  
  
Goten and Trunks blurred through the ring in a straight line, kicking up dual walls of dust before stopping abruptly at the edge of the ring. Trunks ducked Goten`s spinning kick, Goten used his momentum to carry himself over the other boy`s body and avoid a ki blast to the face. In a show of skill though, Trunks jumped back and into Goten`s smaller body, flinging his arms around the other`s neck and then throwing him up into the air.   
  
Goten flipped in his ascent several times before coming to an abrupt stop and glancing around. "Where`d he go?" The younger fighter asked. "Behind and above you," Trunks answered matter-of-factly, though he did so only _after_ reappearing and smacking a ki blast into the back of the other`s head. Goten yelled out in a mix of surprise and annoyance while tumbling down toward the ground below, stopping a few inches above it and tilting to look up at Trunks.   
  
"So much for friendly competition," the boy grumbled, loud enough that Trunks heard him. "Friendly competition in my family means _not_ killing someone," the lavender haired child responded. Goten paused. "Forgot about that."   
  
"Hit him, he`s off gaurd," Jack advised._ "No,"_ Goten replied. "Just hit the little twit and be done with it! Want to disappoint your dad?" Jack asked. _"... Fine, but if Trunks get`s mad then you`ll be in big trouble,"_ Goten thought with a snort before raising up higher into the air and waiting. "What the hell are you thinking? Don`t give him a chance! Just _hit him_!"   
  
"Shut up, Jack," Goten grumbled.   
  
"You _still_ talk to that thing?" Trunks asked. "Yeah," Goten replied. "Eesh," the older of the two said with a shake of the head. His gaurd was down.   
  
_ Chances thrown  
Nothing's free  
  
_ Goten let out a yell and threw his hands forward, powering off a generic beam of energy at Trunks, who was only barely able to swing up and out of the way before Goten controlled the attack to wrap around his friend like some sort of constrictor.   
  
"Ah crap," Trunks muttered.   
  
Longing for what used to be  
Still it's hard  
  
"**_Holy crap!_**" Goku shouted, covering his eyes, along with the rest of the group but Zangya and Juu as Goten detonated his attack, exerting enough control that he kept it from forming any shockwaves or moving any direction but straight up, away from the arena and the island in general. "Where in the heck did he learn to do that?!" Goku demanded. "Didn`t someone tell you? Both of them have a nasty habit of pulling moves out their asses," Vegeta growled in reply. "Yeah but _that_? Since when do _kids_ learn to control their moves like _that_?!" Goku demanded.   
  
"They get younger every day," Gohan sarcastically replied. "Ain`t that the truth?" Zangya asked. "Don`t remind me," Piccolo replied. As for Videl?   
  
"Don`t I have to fight one of them after this?" She asked. "I think you do," Krillin replied. "... Shit."   
  
_ Hard to see  
Fragile lives, shattered dreams  
  
_ "Is... Is he dead?" Capel asked over the microphone, unbelieving of what his own eyes had just seen. Trunks quietly fell out of the cloud of smoke, his gi dirtied up slightly and his hair a total mess but body mostly unharmed for all intents and purposes. Landing on his feet with a wheeze, he leered up at Goten with a frown.   
  
"And what the heck was that? Tryin` to kill me?" He demanded. "Nah..." Goten replied as if openly lying, just trying to tick the older boy off. Trunks snorted annoyedly and lowered into a crouched stance before rocketing up, his aura flaring to life in a blaze of gold, trailing behind him as he went.   
  
  
"History repeats itself," Bulma said with a bit of pride. "How can history repeat itself when Goten didn`t do that the last time around?" ChiChi asked sourly. "Oh, it will ChiChi. Trust me," Bulma replied, leaning back in her seat. "Yeah well..."   
  
"**_KICK HIS ASS, GOTEN!!!_**" ChiChi screamed at the ring, losing control of herself for a moment. "Eep, did I just cuss?" She asked, glancing around. "Yet another reason why Trunks will win: Superior parenting," Bulma bragged, glancing at her nails. ChiChi shrugged. "Say`s the woman who married Vegeta," she retorted flatly. "Say`s the woman who married Goku," Bulma shot back, still wearing a supposedly false air of snobbishness.   
  
"Can`t you two _ever_ get along during a Budoukai?" Yamcha asked, the only voice of sanity willing to make itself known up in the stands. He was promptly thrown forward out of his seat and made to roll down through the rows of people in front of the two women for his attempt at peace making, but he had at least tried.   
  
More than Roshi, Ox King or the others could claim to have done.   
  
  
"Burning Attack!" Trunks shouted, firing off a pulse of bluish white energy out at Goten, who twisted out of the way and threw his hands forward, shouting out in kind. "Burning Attack!" He yelled, firing off the attack in near perfect similarity to Trunks` version. While one had effectively learned it from his father, who`d learned it from training alongside the future version of Trunks himself, Goten hadn`t ever really seen it used that often. It was really quite odd to know someone who replicated your attacks with near pin point accuracy.   
  
Odd and annoying. Trunks smacked the attack aside, knowledgably sending it towards an extremely empty part of the parking lot, though he still succeeded in blowing apart at least a few cars as a result.   
  
"Will you quit doing that?!" Trunks demanded. "Not my fault your moves are easy to copy!" Goten replied. Trunks twitched and threw himself forward, hands held out at his sides, golden ki flaring to life and obscuring each beneath the wrist. With a scream, he threw his hands up above his head and his legs back as far behind his body as they would go, closing the distance with Goten before letting loose.   
  
_ Jamie had a chance, well she really did  
Instead she dropped out and had a couple of kids  
Mark still lives at home cause he's got no job  
He just plays guitar and smokes a lot of pot  
  
_ "**_FINAL FLASH!!!_**"   
  
Goten let out as loud a kiai-yell as he had ever done in his life, and glass was blown out for miles in all directions while Trunks` attack flew forward at near point blank, his arms lowering and his legs flinging forward while the recoil of the blast to follow threw him clear of his younger friend. The resultant explosion wrapped around a sphere of space around Goten, mostly pointed in Trunks` direction, obscuring the younger of the two fighters from sight as an explosion only fleetingly small enough for Trunks to contain from hitting the audience rocked off of his friend`s general location.   
  
Silence followed as Trunks wiped a bit of sweat from his brow, remaining in Super Saiyan the entire time.   
  
And then an ethereal crimson glow formed from within the center of the smoke cloud, which gradually trembled and then imploded on itself, the glow within becoming a bit brighter for every yard the cloud collapsed.   
  
And then came the words that would probably leave Goku in shock.   
  
"**_KAIO KEN ATTAK!!!_**"   
  
Trunks faltered back as Goten flashed out of the remains of the smoke cloud, trailing a dark red-black twist of smoke and fire in his wake, intertwined with bits of gold here and there while he closed in on Trunks at a fast enough speed that only a few of the people in the arena could catch his movements.   
  
_ Jay committed suicide  
Brandon OD'd and died  
What the hell is going on  
The cruelest dream, reality  
  
_ "Who the heck taught Goten how to do the Kaio Ken?!"   
  
"Nobody, he knows it himself," Gohan answered. "Just like he knows a few other moves he`s never used before, or seen for that matter," he added. In an instant, Gohan`s earlier words of concern about Goten had been confirmed for Goku in a shocking moment that left the elder Son reeling.   
  
  
As for the battle in the ring? Trunks paled under the assault, flinging his arms and legs around at random in his frantic efforts to block the other boy`s attack. Goten`s speed and strength had both increased massively as a result of the Kaio Ken power up, and Trunks was feeling this in a most unpleasant way as Goten`s left fist literally smashed through his attempt to grab it and caused him to backhand himself in the cheek. Trunks faltered further, moving back with every attack made.   
  
A knee into the gut and Trunks doubled forward, expecting to find himself draped over the other boy`s leg, instead falling forward further while Goten moved downward to the floor of the ring, seeing everything in near slow motion to how he normally percieved them. It was a strange experience to see time almost slow down around you, especially when your vision was red shifted by the aura around you. He had touched down for all of a thousandth of a second, causing the tile beneath his foot to crack violently beneath his light weight, and then he`d shot back up at Trunks, who had yet to finish falling more than a yard from where he`d been when Goten kneed him in the gut.   
  
Trunks slowly(to Goten`s perceptions) flipped over, still holding his gut as the Son child turned his back to his friend and flew up and over him, flipping around and coming back down with a yell, bulldozing the top of his own head into Trunks` chest and dropping out of the Kaio Ken. Time sped back up to Goten`s eyes and he watched in near shock as Trunks toppled towards the ground outside of the ring, fading out of Super Saiyan and bleeding from the mouth as the result of a busted lip taken somewhere along the way during Goten`s earlier assault.   
  
"Son Goten is the winner! What an upset-rematch!" Capel called out, listening to the cheers of the crowd. "Trunks Briefs and Son Goten are now 1/1/0 at the Tenkaichi Budoukai! What sort of wars will we witness from these two in the future?" He asked, earning only another roar from the crowd. Elsewhere however...   
  
  
"What in the **_HELL_**?!" Vegeta demanded.   
  
  
"How did he beat Trunks?!"   
  
Reactions weren`t quite as joyous and enthusiastic. "Told you Goten would would," ChiChi said with a wave of the finger and a very annoying little smile that wreaked of confidence and pride. It was almost vaguely amusing to see two women - both of whom were mothers - in their mid-to-late 30s arguing over the winner of a match between two little boys.   
  
Almost.   
  
  
"I`m impressed," Goku conceded. "It took me almost a month to learn how to do the Kaio Ken and he learned it on his own without ever even seeing it," he said with obvious surprise. "Well if it wasn`t for that god damned attack, Trunks would have won!" Vegeta yelled. "Stuff it spikey," Zangya replied. "How many other moves does he have that he`s learned like that?" Goku asked. "Don`t know, but he hasn`t used at least a few..." Gohan replied.   
  
"Such as?"   
  
"Such as I`m not saying because I`m not sure he`ll ever learn them," Gohan replied. "Have you been getting into anything while I was gone?" Goku asked curiously, and with concern. "Aside from tournaments and the infrequent battle to the death, not really," Gohan replied with a shrug. "Then how do you know this stuff?" Goku asked. "Not at a liberty to say," Gohan replied honestly, mouthing out 'yet' and pointing to Videl with as much subtlety as he could manage. Goku caught on faster than most people would give him credit for. "Alright," he replied with a nod.   
  
Vegeta was still fuming over what had happened in the match. "Anyone got any Senzu beans? I kinda think we`re gonna need `em at this rate," Krillin asked knowingly, looking around. Piccolo gave a nod, motioning to his belt to reveal the small brown cloth pouch the Senzu were usually kept in. "I got them on the way from the Look Out," he explained. "Good," Goku replied. Gohan only raised an eyebrow and Shin shook his head.   
  
_ "Sorry boys,"_ Shin thought to himself, glancing over to the side again.   
  
  
"Yeah, they`re the ones," Killa stated while staring at the instrument. "One of`em anyway," he added. "Then let`s go," Suta replied, hefting up the rusty white looking device and getting ready. "Wait for it though, combined we couldn`t take them," Suta advised, laying a hand on the other Majin`s shoulder and holding him in place. Killa`s neck literally cracked in a disgusting sort of way as he craned his head around to look at the other. "The winner then?"   
  
"Yes."   
  
  
"You alright Trunks?" Goten asked, stepping over to the other boy with a bemused look of concern. "No thanks to you," Trunks replied sourly before hopping up off the ground. Dusting himself off and wiping his mouth off as well, he offered his hand up at Goten, who crouched down and shook it with a nod. "Next time I`ll beat you though," Trunks said with a competitive glint. "_Sure_ you will," Goten taunted. "Watch me," Trunks replied, walking towards the lounge. Goten was about to follow, having not yet powered back down, when Capel caught him by the arm and almost jammed the microphone in his cheek.   
  
"How does it feel to be the winner?" Capel asked for the crowd.   
  
Trunks on the other hand, finished walking to the lounge, looking at everyone with a raised eyebrow. Everyone but Gohan bore some sort of gravely upset look on their faces. "What?" He asked. "Was it that bad that I lost?" He added. No one responded.   
  
Shin`s eyes were glowing blue and his hands were gradually moving forward. "Something wrong?" Gohan asked, looking down at Shin.   
  
"No, but something is about to be," Shin answered cryptically.   
  
  
"Uhm... Goten?" Capel asked, waiting for an answer. "Can`t... Move," Goten managed to strain out in reply. "Eh? You alright?" Capel asked, bending down to check on him. His concern was rewarded with a hard kick in the side, throwing the blonde haired man across the ring with a bouncing skid and ricocheting his body off of the wall.   
  
Killa withdrew his leg in an instant, grabbing Goten around the throat with both arms and heaving the boy into the air, where Suta roughly stabbed the device into his stomach and let out a loud laugh.   
  
_ Chances thrown  
Nothing's free  
  
_ "**_GOTEN!!!_**" Trunks and Gohan both screamed. Both quickly made good to take off towards the ring only to find themselves restrained. Piccolo grabbed Trunks by the leg and dragged him back, even though the boy flared Super Saiyan from the stress of the moment. Gohan on the other hand found himself held at the wrist by none other than a regretful looking Goku. "Let go of me!" Trunks screamed, flailing around violently in Piccolo`s grasp.   
  
"I`m sorry Gohan..."   
  
"Get your filthy hands _off of me_!" Gohan replied, yanking harder to try and escape Goku`s grip.   
  
_ Longing for what used to be  
Still it's hard  
  
_ Goten let out scream after agonized scream as the device that had been so callously jammed into his stomach gradually sapped him of energy. An ethereally reddened glow of white filled the arena as Jack joined the screaming. Goten`s pain was his pain, and both were feeling it by the truckload. It was like the soul they shared was being sapped out, inch by destructive inch.   
  
"This is like taking candy from a baby!" Suta shouted with a laugh, watching the blood slick down in small, thin trails around the tip of the painfully built sapper device. "We`ll get all the energy we need from this," he added ecstatically.   
  
"**_SOMEONE HELP ME!!!_**" Goten screamed with his last shred of coherence. His eyes slowly began to go blank and his hair slowly began to fade from golden to black. The life was literally being drained out of him.   
  
_ Hard to see  
  
_ "_**LET GO OF ME NOW! GOTEN NEEDS MY HELP!!!**_" Trunks screamed, powering up a ki blast into one hand and making ready to try and blow Piccolo`s arm off. The Namekian just tilted his head out of the way, allowing the attack to soar by and blast out a massive hole in the roof behind him. Gohan on the other hand twitched, yanking harder to try and get his hand free. "Let go. Right. Now," he demanded, pulling even harder than before to try and free himself.   
  
"I can`t do that Gohan. I`m sorry," Goku replied, pulling Gohan even harder, gradually inching him away from the rest of the group. "Well I`m not..." Gohan replied murderously, his feet leaving the ground. Goku ducked his head out of the way as both of his elder son`s legs tried to cleave his head off, turning around twice as a result of Gohan`s twist, bent over backwards each time, but never letting go and never moving forward more than a few inches.   
  
_ Fragile lives, shattered dreams   
  
_ "Have it your way," Gohan bit out angrily, throwing his hand back and powering up. Goku`s eyes widened in shock as the bluish glow surrounding his hand rapidly beginning to overtake the reddened glow across the arena. "**_Kame Hame_**..."   
  
"It`s over!" Shin interrupted, releasing his grip on Goten and allowing the boy to go limp in his captor`s arms. Killa let go and promptly took off with a burst of a grayish aura, followed almost instantly by an insanely laughing Suta. Goku finally let go as a result, as did Piccolo, causing the two half-bred Saiyans to charge towards the ring with a speed that defied normal limitations.   
  
"Kibito," Shin ordered. "I`ll be waiting for you, anyone else who wants to come, follow me," he ordered. "Hold up," Krillin demanded. "Piccolo, gimme a Senzu," the short fellow ordered. Piccolo snorted. "Why?"   
  
"Because those bastards tried to kill Capel, that`s why!" The former monk said, irately. Piccolo growled and did as asked, glancing towards the others. "I`ll be along soon, you comin` Juu?" He asked. "Saving the world isn`t on my to-do list. Have fun," she replied with a careless shrug, though Krillin could see right through it. "Alright," he said with a nod. "I`ll be along in a few seconds guys, don`t take off too far that I can`t catch up," Krillin ordered.   
  
"Piccolo, give me the Senzu," Goku ordered. Piccolo shrugged and did so, tossing the small brown pouch over to Goku and then turning to face the ring. Goku shook his head at his sons for a moment, tucking the small pouch away by tying it to his belt while dropping the back itself between his underwear and the back of his pants. "Foreboding?" Piccolo asked. "Very," Goku answered.   
  
  
In the ring however, Gohan and Trunks were glaring daggers at Kibito as he carefully let his large, pinkish hand rest on Goten`s back. The boy`s skin looked gray, corpse-like in a sense. His eyes were blank, dead to look at. "Hold on, little one, you`ll be alright shortly," Kibito stated. Paramedics were already in the ring, rushing towards Goten with looks of concerned professionalism. "We`ll take things from here," one said. Kibito simply looked up at them with a sneer.   
  
"This boy just got stabbed, sir," he said again.   
  
"I`ve got things covered," Kibito said with threat in his voice. The sounds of several auras flaring to life overhead could be heard as Shin, followed only inches behind by Goku, Piccolo, Zangya and one angry looking Vegeta, who was complaining loudly of percieved cowardess, and then a few seconds later by Krillin, who had the usual 'why me Dende?' look on his face.   
  
Videl had, on the other hand, rushed into the ring, looking a bit upset herself but hiding it quite well. Gohan only gave her a sideways glare, Trunks looked half ready to blow her off the face of the Earth. She`d done nothing.   
  
Which was exactly the point. "What?" She asked annoyedly. "Nothing," both answered in an angry unison. It was probably the first time anyone in any grouping had ever looked ready to kill her on the spot, and given that virtually everyone in the ring but the paramedics were capable of doing so, that was something of an unnerving experience for the girl. Especially given that one of them was the best friend she`d ever had.   
  
"Sorry," Videl mumbled sheepishly. "Save it," Gohan replied. "You gonna heal him or what?" Trunks demanded. "Hold on," Kibito replied. _"Something isn`t right with this boy,"_ Kibito thought. _"Something beneath the surface..."_   
  
"Hurry up," Trunks ordered through grit teeth. Kibito let out a rising yell and a golden glow lit up around Goten`s body, the color soon returning to his skin moment by moment, his eyes opening a bit wider to see his elder brother`s concerned face. "Where`d dad go?" He asked tiredly. "He left and I`m about to go get some answers from him," Gohan replied sternly. "Oh... **_YEEP_**," Goten screeched, the ring shaking as Kibito`s yell became louder. The color finished returning to him, his eyes shot open wide and his hair flashed gold for a moment before the large healer stood back up.   
  
"You should finish recovering your energy soon enough, in the mean time," Kibito glanced towards the direction that the others had flown off in. "I have a flight to catch," he stated, aura flaring up with a burst of light. "Not without me, you`re not," Gohan snorted. "Or me," Videl added. "Or us," Trunks added again. "Wrong," Gohan replied. "Someone has to stay and tell Mom and Bulma what happened or they`ll have a conniption," Gohan ordered. "And you`re _all_ staying, got that?" He asked even more sternly than before. Videl growled beneath her breath. This was _not_ a side of Gohan she liked seeing _at all_.   
  
"Will do," she said with a frown through grit teeth. "Alright," Trunks said. "Are you coming or what?" Kibito asked. "Lead the way," Gohan answered. The two launched out of the ring in a blur seconds later, causing a small scale sonic boom as a result.   
  
  
And in the shadows of the lounge, the last player of the grand game stood silently watching things. "Oh well," Cell said with a shrug. "You can take the prize, it mean`s nothing to me anyway," he said with another shrug, walking away from Juuhachigou a few moments later. "Aren`t you still hellbent on killing him?" She asked. Cell paused, looking over his shoulder with a smirk.   
  
"When I choose it."   
  
With that, he left.   
  


_ End Part Four  
  


* * *

  
  
_

**Author`s Note:** So much for 'healing old wounds' between Gohan and Goku, eh? Hope you enjoyed the action and the development in this one folks, Sh33p out.  
  



	5. Your Signs

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


**Hybrid Theory   
**_Your Signs   
  
  
  
_

_"Good,"_ Shin thought, glancing over his shoulder and spotting several of the Earthers following his path almost precisely. "I`m glad you decided to come, I doubt I could handle this alone!" He shouted back at the approaching group. Goku frowned, the two of them weren`t _that_ strong really, the only ones they could`ve beaten without help were probably Videl or Master Roshi, and even then it wasn`t that sure of a chance. "You can`t beat those two?" He asked, almost in disbelief. "It`s not them, they`re just pawns in this game," Shin replied. "Pawns to a cunning sorcerer named-" "Babidee," Piccolo interupted. "I gathered his name on a fluke a few years ago after one of the previous tournaments," he stated.   
  
"Go on," Goku urged. Krillin had caught up by now and Vegeta was still grumbling incoherently to himself, occasionally being told to shut up by Zangya. "Long ago, when humanity hadn`t even fully evolved out of tree dwelling monkeys yet, there was an evil sorcerer by the name of Bibidee. His ruthless ways destroyed an order of nobility in the mortal realm, and left an entire solar system forever cursed into a black pit called the Dead Zone," Shin began, again finding himself interupted. "We`ve been up against that thing before, one of the Earth`s former Kamis actually held a war against it as well," Piccolo stated. "He wasn`t the only one," Shin replied cryptically. "The worlds of the Dead Zone became nothing but a festering spawning pool, with Bibidee at it`s throne, watching and waiting for decades until..."   
  
  
"Bibidee created a creature known only as 'Buu.' It was an incredible monster, knowing no fear or pain, knowing no hesitation and absolutely no kindness. Bibidee returned from the Dead Zone again, bringing along Buu in his quest to destroy the mortal realm as part of some elaborate scheme. Years in the Dead Zone must have tainted his mind beyond belief but the facts stood for themselves: In only a few short years, Buu had destroyed hundreds of worlds."   
  
  
_ "Feh. Like the Saiyans didn`t do worse,"_ Vegeta thought with obvious sarcasm. "You`re wrong Vegeta," Shin replied to the thought with slight anger. The former prince face faulted. "At the time of Buu there were hundreds of Kaios, dozens of Dai Kaios and twenty-five Kaioshins, including the Dai Kaioshin. Every one of them could kill Frieza single handedly," Shin stated. "By the end of the first battles, all of them but the ancestors of the current gods and five of the Kaioshins were _dead_," he exclaimed coldly. "_What_?!" Goku yelped. "That`s... Not... Good," Krillin interjected with a twitch.   
  
_ "That bastard, playing into their fears like that,"_ Vegeta thought, unimpressed by the story in the least.   
  
"The problem with Buu was that to control him brought incredible strain to Bibidee`s powers. So, on every world, Bibidee used scout demons, creatures known as the Majin, to gather as much pure energy as possible without drawing attention. Then he would unleash Buu upon the world, sealing him up in a ball the moment the damage had been completely done, later using the pure energy to break the seal in a way that would keep Bibidee himself at full strength..."   
  
  
"And so, one day Bibidee sealed Buu away and brought him to Earth, intending on it to be his next target. The East Kaioshin, the sole survivor of Buu`s slaughter, was waiting for him. In an ambush, the Kaioshin killed Bibidee before the seal could be broken, and then scuttled the sorcerer`s space ship, delicately burying Majin Buu`s ball away beneath the surface of the Earth, making sure it would never be disturbed."   
  
"Why didn`t he destroy it?" Gohan asked. "There was too high a chance of Buu surviving and wreaking havoc with no chance to stop it," Kibito replied. "It was a flawless plan on the Kaioshin`s part, he had buried the ball in an area devoid of anything to dig for, miles beneath the ground..."   
  
  
"... But there was a catch. Recently, we discovered something terrible: Bibidee had a son named Babidee," Shin exclaimed. "He has all of his father`s evil and twice the skill, but none of the common sense. He thinks he can control Buu as well as his father did, and he won`t stop trying until he`s killed or succeeds."   
  
_ Gotta make the list of what is best   
Gotta make the fist and beat against   
Have to leave an impression   
Do you have a suggestion?   
  
_ "So all we have to do is stop Babidee from resurrecting Majin Buu?" Zangya asked. "That`s right," Shin answered. "But to do that, we have to defeat him," he added. "Is he strong?" Goku asked. "As you probably think of things, no."   
  
  
"Babidee is physically weak, anyone could probably defeat him in a conventional fight, but his powers with magic defy reasoning," Kibito stated. "I`ve been around people like that before," Gohan replied. "If he fights like them then he can be taken out all the same," he added.   
  
  
"Mostly he uses his power to take over the hearts and souls of those he can tempt. People like Suta and Killa," Kaioshin continued. "Even an inkling of darkness is all he needs, and once under his spell, there is _no_ escaping it," he finished. "Unless he`s possessed someone strong, he won`t be much of a problem," Shin added as an after thought. Vegeta snorted, Piccolo and Krillin exchanged glances but said nothing.   
  
_ I'm all out of good ideas   
The ones you have always put into your ears   
With all you care to share   
How did I end up here?   
  
_ "So why did Babidee go after my little brother?" Gohan asked. "And why didn`t he attack sooner? He`s had two chances before," he added. "To break the seal requires massive amounts of energy, purely good or purely evil. To do this, Babidee sent those two to the Budoukai, and from there: Goten was an ideal target."   
  
"Why didn`t they wait?" Gohan asked. "Because the Majin aren`t known for their key intelligence sometimes," Kibito replied with a shrug. "They saw an opportunity and took it, heedless of any consequences," Kibito added. "And why didn`t they attack at any of the last two tournaments?" Gohan asked. "They were probably scouting things to be careful. We followed their most recent recruits from a world on the fringe of the galaxy to the Earth, and then suspected they would enter the tournament. We didn`t know of the two previous attempts though," Kibito conceded.   
  
"Your little brother`s sacrifice will be put to use though," he added. "Once we track them to Babidee, we`ll be able to put an end to the horrors of Majin Buu. Once and for all," he finished resolutely. "One for the many then," Gohan growled. "Still don`t see why you had to let Goten be the one they attacked."   
  
"It had to be done, accept it and move on, there are more pressing matters to attend," Kibito said. Gohan glared at him from the side. "Such as?" He asked. "Such as catching up to the others," Kibito replied, blasting ahead. Gohan shook his head and followed after the large pink skinned god, aura flaring up in the process.   
  
_ Your signs are pointing to nowhere   
That's exactly where I won't go   
Your signs are pointing to nowhere   
And no one that I know   
Will ask all you care to show me   
Care to show me   
  
_ Several minutes passed as the pair moved onward, catching up to the group ahead without delay. Gohan didn`t wave out though, he simply moved over to the side opposite of the one Goku was on, hanging off at the edge of things with a look of business on his face. Kibito on the other hand, moved up next to the Kaioshin. "Glad you two could make it!" Goku called out. Gohan didn`t respond. "Did you explain things to him, Kibito?" Shin asked. The larger of the two gave a nod.   
  
Another few minutes passed in silence as the group moved on, following after the two Majin, who were both grinning like idiots from ear to ear. And then...   
  
"It looks like they`re about to stop, everyone land!" Shin shouted, powering his aura down and lowering his speed considerably to touch down behind a large rock outcropping, followed shortly by the rest of the group. "Keep your power down," Piccolo advised, landing as softly as a feather on the outcropping, something that was a bit of a miracle in and of itself considering the mantle he wore increased his weight by almost a ton.   
  
"Didn`t we check over this area though?" Kibito asked, landing next to Vegeta. The group had hidden itself well from the eyes, exposed only slightly as Gohan and Goku crouched atop the outcropping, barely visible. Piccolo had effectively gone out of sight entirely, he had always been a master at the art of sneaking around when he had to. Zangya had landed behind Kibito and Krillin had landed next to her. Before them was a surprisingly uneffected area, a farmhouse and a small outhouse looking construct in a barren area a few hundred yards from it.   
  
"That ground looks like it was dug up recently," Krillin pointed out, watching Killa and Suta touch down and be greeted by some odd looking figure in a black and white, armored uniform. "Is that Babidee?" Piccolo asked. "No," Shin replied. Kibito grimaced. "Damn him, he hid the ship underground! No wonder we couldn`t find it."   
  
"And that means he knows we`re here on Earth," Shin surmised rapidly. "That`s why he`s hiding," he added through grit teeth. "We should attack now, then. Before they can resurrect Majin Buu," Piccolo suggested. "No. If we attack the ship we run the risk of damaging the ball and releasing him anyway. Don`t worry though, they won`t risk unleashing him in the ship, that would be too risky since he`d likely destroy it before Babidee could get control on him," Shin explained. "Let`s wait a little longer."   
  
_ Gotta make the list of what is best   
Gotta make the fist and beat against   
Have to make this perfectly clear   
I'm not waiting for one million years   
For us in general   
  
_ "I say we attack now, throw caution to the wind later," Vegeta uttered. "Do you want to die?" Shin asked. "Majin Buu isn`t to be taken lightly, I don`t care how strong you think you are," the small god said. Vegeta looked like he`d just been slapped. "Why you little..." "Can it Vegeta, he has his reasons," Zangya ordered. "And since when do _you_ give _me_ orders, grass bitch?" Vegeta asked. "You`re scared of me, aren`t you?" He asked. "Ease off Vegeta," Goku ordered. Vegeta shifted his glare from Zangya to the other, smirking slightly. "You`re scared of me, aren`t you Kakarot? That`s the real reason you came along, you were scared of being chosen to fight me in the tournament," he guessed.   
  
"In your dreams," Goku replied coldly. "Sure," Vegeta mocked. "If you`re going to fight, go back to the arena. The rest of us have a job to do," Piccolo cut in like a knife. "Fine," Vegeta growled. Goku didn`t respond.   
  
_ You make the chemical   
Situation I put us in   
Unfamiliar in foreign land   
  
_ As for Gohan, he was busy staring dishearteningly at the mutilated bodies of the two people who had once lived in the house near the buried space ship. The woman had simply been chopped in half and the man had been stretched over a rock and crushed with a shotgun still in hand. Both looked like they were still screaming even when they`d been dead for at least a few days. It disturbed him quite a bit really, death hadn`t exactly been his friend over the years.   
  
"Looks like they had a bit of resistance when they landed," he muttered in disgust. Piccolo glanced to the side and shook his head briefly before turning back to the ship. "Something`s coming out!" He said, dragging everyone`s attention back to the door of the ship as two figures came out.   
  
One of them was exceptionally large and quite familiar, the other was small and frail looking. Gohan identified the larger of the two almost instantly. "Dabura," he mumbled out. "Dabura?" Shin asked. "Great. Babidee`s managed to possess the Demon King," Kibito growled. "I didn`t know he could possess people that strong," Shin responded intensely.   
  
"Is he the big one?" Goku asked. "Yes."   
  
"Is he strong?" Goku asked again. "Of course he is. He`s the King of the Demon World, the Lord of Darkness himself. One of you is probably the strongest in this universe, but in all of the Dead Zone, none surpass Dabura for his power, skill, _or_ his cruelty," Shin replied. "Eh..." Gohan paused. "I`ve fought him twice - beat him the second time without really trying - and Vegeta probably scarred him for life," he stated, almost nonchalantly. "I gave him a nice run fo r his money too," Krillin added.   
  
Kaioshin thought he was going to faint.   
  
"So the little one is Babidee, huh?" Goku asked. "That`s right," Shin answered. "So he`s controlling the others," Gohan surmised. "He`s not strong himself so he has to use others to do his dirty work," Shin replied. "His magics are not to be underestimated though, they`re incredible. Powerful enough to make Dabura his underling," he added. "His magic is strong enough to bend people to his will?" Zangya asked. "No, Babidee manipulates them through the evil desires in their hearts, making them think that they wanted to do whatever he tells them all along..."   
  
"Dabura was an obvious choice," Kibito stated. "It is Babidee`s greatest weapon. Killa, Suta, Dabura... All of the others, they all fell to it. That`s why only the pure of heart should confront him," he added.   
  
"Now that we know Dabura is here..." Kaioshin began. "It may be far harder to defeat them," he finished. "I`ve already proven I can beat him pretty easily if I have to, and I`m sure my dad and Vegeta, maybe Zangya and Piccolo, could both probably take him too," Gohan explained. "It`s not that, Dabura is at least skilled enough to last long enough for Babidee to unleash Majin Buu, or move him to another location."   
  
"Sounds like we`re in for it then," Zangya replied. "Worse than you think."   
  
"Are you saying we can`t win?" Vegeta asked.   
  
_ Your signs are pointing to nowhere   
That's exactly where I won't go   
Your signs are pointed to nowhere   
And no one that I know   
Will ask all you care to show me   
  
_ Shin didn`t answer him.   
  
  
On the dead ground below however, another scene was playing itself out as a disgruntled looking Babidee stared at the dial in absolute anger. "It was easier than we thought it`d be," Suta stated with a pathetically empty grin. "Like takinacandeh froma baby," Killa added with a similarly hollow look on his face. "And it spoiled quickly," Babidee stated lowly, with menace. "This isn`t the proper energy you idiots, it`s not pure evil and it`s not pure good," he growled. "But the detector said..."   
  
"I don`t care what the detector said. I don`t tolerate failure. _Ever_."   
  
Killa and Suta both inched back as Babidee tossed the device to Dabura, who stood there watching. "Good-bye," Babidee said cheerfully before his eyes took on a sparkling glow at the edges. Mere seconds passed before Killa let out a howling scream, soon to turn into a gurgle. His body ballooned up in the same disgusting fashion, and Suta stumbled back as every part of his partner bulged up to gruesome extremes.   
  
Blood began to trail down from Killa`s nose and ears before finally, several seconds later, the entire body of the dying fighter simply gave out and tore apart in a huge spray of crisped blood and bone, torn muscle and ripped internal organs flying outward, accompanied by a ball of fire that consumed it all before it could touch anyone. All that was left were a pair of empty, scorched boots surrounded by a black ring with a large )V( at the center.   
  
"I love fireworks," Babidee commented dreamily as Suta turned around and started running, bursting off of the ground and towards the clouds.   
  
"Pui-Pui, if you would be so kind," Babidee trailed off. "Of course, Master," the alien henchman stated, taking hold of his left hand and turning around. His aim was rapid and precise before he muttered something under his breath and fired off a relatively low powered blast of ki after the fleeing Suta, who was screaming in terror the entire way.   
  
"Good shot!" Babidee congratulated as Suta vanished in a ball of flames when the blast hit him. "Only the best, Master Babidee," Pui-Pui replied.   
  
  
"What the hell kind of monsters are they?! They killed their own men!" Gohan yelped in shock. Zangya and Vegeta were actually the only ones who weren`t all that stunned by it, though Zangya looked a good bit unenthused by watching it happen. "Big deal, not like some of us haven`t done worse," Vegeta commented with a shrug.   
  
  
"Well then... Dabura, it seems as though Killa and Suta didn`t bring in any good energy, but they _did_ lead that bastard Kaioshin and his underling here..." Babidee began. "They`re hiding up there, where they think we can`t detect them. All eight of them. Even if we can`t use Kaioshin or Kibito`s energies, there are still the others, and all of them are strong," Dabura replied. "That`s how it`ll go then. Those fools came expecting to stop Majin Buu`s revival..."   
  
"But they`re only going to speed the process up. Why don`t you go welcome them, Dabura. I only need the strongest three though, and _do_ come back alive, I still have uses for you," Babidee ordered before Pui-Pui took the energy draining device from the Demon King and bowed, entering the ship. "And don`t kill the Kaioshin either, I still have a great deal of torture to perform on him."   
  
"Understood," Dabura replied. "I`ll gladly leave him to you," he added with a feral grin. "I`ll leave the rest up to you, have fun," Babidee stated before walking into the ship after Pui-Pui.   
  
"Heh.." Dabura smirked, glancing towards the outcropping where the group was hidden. "The only one of them who can threaten me isn`t powered up," Dabura thought aloud. "All too easy."   
  
  
"Everyone but Dabura went in..." Gohan mused. "Shit," Vegeta bit out. "They know we`re here!"   
  
By then though, it was already too late.   
  
_ How would you like me   
Where would you like me to be   
And could you make me worry   
Just a little more   
The way you look at me confuses me   
Even with you next to me   
  
_ "KIBITO!!!" Shin shouted out as Dabura glid up the surface of the mountainside in a blur, halting on a dime in front of the huge pink god, hand extended. "**_DIE!!!_**" Dabura shouted, powering up a blast and literally blowing Kibito`s head off of his shoulders, followed soon by most of his upper body. The charred remains tumbled down the side of the mountain a few seconds later before Dabura blazed upward, watching the responses of the group.   
  
"Crap!" Goku yelled out, looking up at the large pink skinned warrior with disdain. Dabura grinned for all of a moment and then spat three times, targeting Zangya, Krillin and Piccolo directly. "Don`t let his spit touch you!" Gohan shouted out in unison with the Kaioshin. It was already too late though, the three had each been hit on the skin. All of them let out yells of surprise and then turned to stone, trapped in the poses they`d been in when they`d been hit.   
  
"Damn!" Shin growled. "Krillin! Piccolo! Zangya!" Gohan shouted out, rushing towards the nearest statue only to stop instantly. "Don`t touch them!" Shin ordered. Dabura let out a loud laugh as Kaioshin explained. "They`ve become stone, break them and they`ll never change back!"   
  
"Bastard!" Gohan growled through grit teeth, glaring up at Dabura. "Is there any way for us to turn them back?" Goku asked. "Only by killing Dabura," Shin replied. "So there _is_ a way. And it`s even simple," Goku replied with a smirk. "Huh?" Shin asked.   
  
"Turn back and run now! Unless you`d rather end up like your friends!" Dabura shouted, flying back towards the space ship in a flash. "Then let`s go," Gohan ordered, standing up on the edge of the rock. "You coming Dad?" He asked. "Of course," Goku replied eagerly, jumping up off the mountain top after Gohan.   
  
"You`re all playing right into his hand! This is exactly what he wanted!" Shin yelled out after them. Surprisingly enough, only Vegeta was still standing around, casually walking up next to Shin before speaking. "Too bad for you. We Saiyans aren`t known for our patience," he stated with a smirk. "Don`t!" Shin shouted as Vegeta took off after Goku and Gohan.   
  
The elder god stood quietly atop the rock, watching the three Saiyans zoom in on the space ship. One word came to mind to explain his current feelings on the matter:   
  
"... Shit."   
  
"Idiots. All of them," he added to himself before taking off after them. There was a rapidly forming pit in the small god`s stomach as he closed in on the entrance to the space ship.   
  
_ Your signs are pointed to nowhere   
That's exactly where I won't go   
Your signs are pointing to nowhere   
And no one that I know   
Will ask all that you care to show me   
  
_ "Small minded, aren`t they?" Babidee asked. "This should all make for the perfect restoration of Majin Buu, absolutely _perfect_," the small villain schemed with a grin. "Indeed," Dabura agreed.   
  
"Pui-Pui, go get their energy. And be quick about it," Babidee ordered. "As you command, Master Babidee," Pui-Pui replied, heading for the door. Dabura only smirked. "Have fun dying," he muttered under his breath, secretly wishing for the quartet to make it to the second floor, if only so that he could watch Pui-Pui die a violent death.   
  
Dabura was a spiteful bastard. Heck, what do you expect from the Demon King?   
  
_ Your signs   
Your signs, care to show me   
Your signs   
Care to show me   
Care to show me, I won't go   
  
_ "It seems that once you go in, you don`t come out without defeating Babidee," Shin mused as the ceiling slid shut. "Hmph, I could just blow the entire ship up if I wanted," Vegeta replied with a shrug. "Try it and watch us all _die_ when Buu gets out!" Kaioshin shouted. "Whatever," Vegeta growled.   
  
"Think we`ll be waiting for long then?" Goku asked. "Not at all, it would be rude manners, of course," a new voice intruded as the door slid open behind Vegeta. Pui-Pui exited slowly afterward, explaining manners in a brash, arrogant kind of way that left only Kaioshin feeling impressed, or horrified, or disgusted, or... Well, you get the idea. "Babidee is on the bottom level of the ship. There are three levels before it, each is a Stage. You are on Stage One, that means you will fight me. Defeat me and you advance to the next Stage, however..."   
  
"Facing me means that none of you will leave here alive!" He exclaimed, lowering into a fighting stance with a grin.   
  
Goku was the only one other than Kaioshin who didn`t almost burst into laughter. "I don`t think so..." He replied with a confident grin.   
  
_

End Part Five  
  


* * *

  
  


_ **Author`s Note:** Good to see ya back again diamondgirl :]  
  
Came up with Yamcha`s last name for one reason really... Yamcha Soza, it just sounds like it fits him to me. Not sure if it`s been used by someone else before but... ah well.  
  
Sh33p out.  
  



	6. My Way

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations   
**_My Way   
  
  
  
_

"Rock, paper, scissors," the three of them began. They`d been playing this little game for the past three minutes, every time going to a total draw because they each picked a different sign or all picked the same thing at once. Pui-Pui was laughing insanely and Kaioshin looked as though his brain had gone numb. "This is too much," Pui-Pui cracked. "You`re all supposed to be strong but you`re just a bunch of idiots!" He jested. "For once, I agree with one of Babidee`s henchmen," Shin muttered under his breath.   
  
"Rock, paper, scissors... Rock, paper, scissors..."   
  
Pui-Pui finally cracked his neck and stretched briefly before putting his hands on his hips. "Well? Is anyone going to fight me or what?" He demanded. "Rock... Paper... _Scissors_," the three replied. "Damn," Vegeta grumbled. "I`m out," he mumbled while stepping back over to Shin. "Rock, paper, scissors," Goku and Gohan began, making the same signs each time before finally...   
  
"Hah!" Gohan shouted. "Ah well," Goku shrugged, stepping over towards Vegeta with a frown. "May as well look on the bright side: At least our opponents will probably be stronger than his, right?" Goku asked. "That still means I`m stuck fighting last," Vegeta grumbled. "You`re all insane, we have to fight together!" Kaioshin yelled, beginning to walk at Pui-Pui before Goku`s hand caught him on the shoulder. "Don`t worry Kaioshin, Gohan can handle himself at least as good as you, me or Vegeta."   
  
"Finally," Pui-Pui groaned, lowering himself back into a fighting stance. "Are you ready to die, boy?" He asked with menace in his voice. Gohan smirked in reply, remaining in the most open, defenseless fighting stance he could possibly manage, and doing so intentionally. "All I have to say..." He began, waiting for Pui-Pui`s first strike. The alien underboss charged forward with a howl, lashing out with a half a dozen kicks in a quarter as many seconds.   
  
Every one of them was aimed directly at Gohan`s head.   
  
And every one of them missed. Badly. Pui-Pui hopped back, powering up and throwing a low powered ki blast towards Gohan, who still stood there lazily. His arm suddenly shot out though, grabbing onto the blast and forcibly pulping it into an explosion in his hand. Pui-Pui grinned joyously, watching his foe vanish in a cloud of fire and smoke.   
  
And then the smoke cleared. Gohan was still standing there. Unscathed. His douji wasn`t even burnt.   
  
"... It really sucks to be you," he stated. Pui-Pui gulped.   
  
_ Special, you think you're special you do  
I can see it in your eyes  
I can see it when you laugh at me look down on me  
And you walk around on me  
  
"Bastards. Both of them,"_ Vegeta thought, watching the little spectacle play out. _"Can`t believe Kakarot had the nerve to leave the tournament. Little shit probably really **is** afraid of me,"_ he reasoned, glaring sideways over at Goku. _"He`s just too scared to admit it. I`ll get him though,"_ he added to himself.   
  
"**_AUGH!!! GRAH!!! NGAH!!!_**"   
  
"Ready for round two?"   
  
"Mah mouf," Pui-Pui muttered, getting back up in a daze. Several of his teeth were missing and there was a fist sized imprint on either side of his chest and his chin had a shallow, knee shaped dent in it. "Fah hur`," he growled. "Not _my_ fault, you _did_ throw the first attack," Gohan shrugged.   
  
"**_PAPARA PA PA!!!_**" A shrill little voice screeched through the room as Pui-Pui charged again. The surrounding walls suddenly began to fade around into stars and space before ending as the occupants of the room, along with the entrance to the floor below, were transported across space and time to another area.   
  
Gohan was a bit too busy observing the scenery to notice Pui-Pui getting ready to attack him, glancing across the barren landscape. For all intents and purposes, the place looked like the moon painted the color of Mars. It was also cold and dust was kicked up quite freely by gusts of strong wind. Then he felt a fist ram itself hard into his face.   
  
More surprised than in pain, Gohan leaned back from the impact, straightening back up a few moments later to see Pui-Pui standing a few yards away, nursing his hand, which was bruised beneath the glove. "That was odd," Gohan mumbled. "Am I seeing things or did the scenery just change?!" He yelled over at Vegeta, Goku and Kaioshin, who were now standing about fifty feet away.   
  
"Babidee transported us to another location!" Shin yelled back with concern. "Indeed," Pui-Pui stated, no longer nursing his still sore hand. "Welcome to planet Zun, my homeworld. The gravity here is _ten times_ that of your world, the atmosphere is _half_ as thick and the climate is _twice_ as inhospitable!" Pui-Pui bragged. "Welcome to a world which will grind your bones to dust just by standing upon it, welcome to a world where your hopes of victory," he began, speaking with a slight lisp the entire time while picking up a small rock and holding it effortlessly. It probably weighed fifty pounds in the heavy gravity of Zun.   
  
"Are going to fall faster than this rock," he stated, letting go. The rock dropped alright, landing with a bowling bowl-level thump in the dirt, grinding in almost an inch before stopping. Gohan shook his head.   
  
"That`s it?" He asked.   
  
"Just hurry up and finish it already!" Vegeta shouted. "But I`m having fun!" Gohan yelled back. "Come on, Gohan! Don`t keep us waiting _too_ long here!" Goku interjected. "Fine, fine... Looks like we`ll have to cut this short," Gohan said, glancing back at the stunned Pui-Pui.   
  
"We can do this three ways: The easy way, the painful way, and the messy way. I _would_ let you go and all, but since I can`t leave until you`re dead..." Gohan shrugged. "Nothing personal," he offered with a bit of genuine sincerity. "**_DIE!!!_**" Pui-Pui screamed, insulted beyond words. The alien charged forward rapidly, skidding along the ground at Gohan.   
  
His efforts were met with a kick to the face. The alien flew up into the air and fell back down after a twenty second long ascent, crashing with a hard thud to the ground. "So you picked the painful way. Least you`ll be able to have something you can remotely call a body in Hell, right?" Gohan asked, already standing over Pui-Pui`s body imprint. Pui-Pui screamed and threw a massive ki beam out from his point in the imprint, which Gohan caught with one hand. The attack pressed vainly against his palm for several seconds before Gohan wound up his other arm and solidly punched it, half-turning as a result, his other hand leaving the beam behind.   
  
"Oh no..." Pui-Pui muttered.   
  
"Wow," Goku commented offhandedly. "Talk about going out with a bang."   
  
"That wasn`t funny, Kakarot," Vegeta replied, though half of his sentence was obscured by the sound of a distant, powerful explosion. "Wasn`t meant to be," Goku retorted. "Come on, Gohan! The door`s opening up!" Goku shouted before hopping down the tunnel-like opening. Vegeta was still growling under his breath the entire time as Gohan casually followed after them.   
  
Shin stood there with his mouth hanging open. "What in the hell kind of monsters are these people?" He asked himself in shock.   
  
_ Just one more fight   
About your leadership  
And I will straight up leave your shit   
Cause I've had enough of this and now I'm pissed   
  
_ All of seventeen minutes ago, Capel had been hosting what was looking up to be the single greatest martial arts tournament in recorded history. All of seventeen minutes ago, he`d been joyously calling out the match between Son Goten and Trunks Briefs. All of seventeen minutes ago, he hadn`t been knocked out of the ring by a blow that would`ve caused him to bleed to death internally if not for a short friend in a very high place as far as instant healing food was concerned.   
  
All of seventeen minutes ago, Capel wasn`t considering retirement. Now?   
  
Now he was performing crowd control. "Unfortunately people, it looks as though the tournament will have to be postponed. We`re _not_ canceling it, it`s just going to have to be put off for a week or two. If you`re worried about the money you`ve spent on tickets, you can keep the tickets you bought and get in free when we pick things back up, _or_ you can turn them in and get re-embersed," he explained, wiping a bit of left over blood from his forehead. People weren`t mobbing him with food, thankfully enough. Everyone was still a bit shocked senseless about the fact he was even standing.   
  
"So just... Keep calm and we`ll see if we can sort things out over the course of the next few days..."   
  
As for others? Trunks and Goten sat next to Videl in the darkened hallway leading from the lounge to the path that connected to a dozen or so other enclosed areas and rooms, as well as the infirmary and a special entrance for people from the audience. Juuhachigou was casually standing across from them, sipping on a drink she`d swiped from the trashed canned drink machine. "I cannot believe him," Videl grumbled.   
  
"I think I`m gonna puke..." Goten mumbled uncertainly. Nausea had apparently managed to overtake him a few minutes after he`d left the ring. "Just don`t aim it at me," Trunks replied. "I suppose you can just tell it to his mother," Juu finally replied. "She`ll probably end up killing him anyway. And Goku as well," she said as an after thought. Videl frowned. "I don`t want that..."   
  
"Then what do you want?" Juu asked. "I don`t know," Videl replied. "Well, you`d better decide it quickly," Juu said with a bit of understanding. "What if he doesn`t come back?" Videl asked. "He will. The Sons are all too damn stubborn to stay dead for more than a year without intending to stay that way," Juu replied. "Oh, thanks for the shot in the arm," Videl replied sardonically. "Anytime," Juuhachi answered.   
  
"What the heck are you two talking about?" Trunks asked. "Nothing that concerns you, just make sure Goten doesn`t vomit on someone," the blonde woman replied. "Oh... Right," Trunks said, turning back to Goten and jumping out of the way. "Nngh... I dun` feel s`good," the younger boy mumbled again, sliding back on the floor and gagging for a moment before coughing up a red clot out onto the floor. "You okay?" Videl asked.   
  
"Freakin` faith healers," Jack muttered under his breath. "Shyaddap Jack, not in the mood for it right now," Goten growled. "Jack?" Videl asked. "His imaginary friend," Trunks replied. "He never stopped talking to him," he added uncertainly. "Not like I can," Goten grumbled. "Trunks, why don`t you take him for a quick walk," Juu said. "The air might do him a bit of good," she added. Juuhachigou might have had a cold exterior but she still gave enough of a damn to try to keep people from getting hurt too badly if she could.   
  
Not that she wouldn`t crack someone`s skull over more than a few things, but still.   
  
"Alright, come on Airbrain," Trunks said, dragging Goten up off the floor and looping an arm around his neck, helping the other boy stumble along down the hallway and towards one of the enclosed areas.   
  
"You sure it was a good idea to let them go off alone like that?" Videl asked. "No but it beats having the kid have to get poked, prodded, suffocated and unintentionally humiliated by his mother," Juu replied. "I know I`d do that if anyone stabbed Marron," she stated. "But only after taking care of whoever did it first," she added as an afterthought. "Speaking of Marron," she glanced down the hallway, to the side opposite the door that Trunks and Goten had disappeared into.   
  
"Momma!" The little girl jubilantly cried out, being followed by Yamcha alone. "Where`re ChiChi and Bulma and the others?" Videl asked as Marron ran towards Juuhachigou. "ChiChi passed out. She hasn`t come to yet, so Ox, Umi, Oolong and Puar are carrying her out to the parking lot and Bulma, Hercule and Roshi are waiting for us up in the stands with a few of you and Gohan`s friends," Yamcha explained. "Eh?"   
  
"A boy and a girl named Erasa and Sharpener. Ran into them while we were all relocating and splitting up, they recognized your dad and introduced themselves," he shrugged. "Ah. Right," Videl replied. "Not in a social mood I take it?" Yamcha asked. "Not at all," Videl answered. "Well, any idea where Goten and Trunks went?" He asked. "Third hall on the ri-" Juu paused, hearing a pair of flares going off before two small scale sonic booms echoed through the arena.   
  
"I do believe we`ve been had," she said with a half amused frown. Videl nodded. Upon closer inspection, the clot looked like a collection of spit soaked threads bitten off of the inner sleeves of Goten`s gi.   
  
_ This time I'm a let it all come out  
This time I'm a stand up and shout   
  
_ "Come on already! What do you expect me to do? Stand around here all day and wait?" Goku yelled expectantly, waiting for the next fighter. "And people say _I`m_ impatient," Vegeta muttered. "You are," Gohan reminded absently. "Shut up, Kako-spawn," Vegeta replied. Gohan shrugged. "Hurry up!" Goku shouted again.   
  
"A bunch of insane monsters," Shin muttered in disbelief. "Will you shut up with your silly little rantings already?" Vegeta growled. Shin stared at him briefly and shook his head. "And _quit shaking your god damned head, will you_?!" Vegeta demanded. "... Gee Vegeta, aren`t you in a pleasant mood," Gohan commented dryly. "Can it brat."   
  
"**_WE`RE WAAAAITING!!!_**" Goku shouted at the top of his lungs. "We wouldn`t _be_ waiting if not for you leaving!" Vegeta accused. Goku turned to face him. "So? We`ll fight later," Goku said. "You`re only here for one day you ass!" Vegeta replied. "You`ve waited eleven years Vegeta, what difference is a few hours?" Goku asked. "A whole lot! What if you vanish in the middle of the fight?!"   
  
"And what if your head explodes from stress? Chill out Vegeta," Gohan interrupted. "Keep out of it, brat!" Vegeta bit out. "I`m getting sick and tired of all of this waiting and if I don`t get a damn fight within the next five minutes, I`ll blow the ship to pieces and we can be done with it all!" He exclaimed. Gohan and Goku were utterly unenthused. "Do you want everyone to die, Vegeta?!" The small god asked. "Do I give a shit? The strong will survive and the weak will perish, it`s the way things work!" The former prince replied with a snort.   
  
_ I'm a do things my way  
It's my way, my way or the highway   
  
_ "Finally," Gohan muttered out as the door slid open. Goku shifted his gaze from Vegeta to the darkened entrance, right as the mutilated skull of one of Babidee`s henchmen rolled through it. "That`s it? A skull?" Goku asked in disbelief. "I somehow doubt that," Gohan replied as several thumps began to sound off through the doorway. "Ohhh... Hey, you`re right," Goku said with a tilt of the head. A few more thuds and then, silence.   
  
"Ah... Damn..." Goku mumbled.   
  
From the doorway came the source of his astonishment. It looked like a twelve foot tall cross between a frog, a man, a short tailed lizard and a raptor, with massive talons concealed within it`s forearms. A Majin symbol decorated it`s lower chest, and it`s mouth looked to be stained with fresh blood, a bone being crunched between it`s large fangs.   
  
"Guess it was worth the wait, huh?" Gohan asked with a blink or three. "What in the hell is that thing?" Vegeta snorted, unimpressed. "**Which one of you am I going to eat first?**" The creature asked in a voice that boomed as loud as a jet engine. "I`m going to fight you," Goku answered sternly. "Even if it won`t be that much of a challenge," he shrugged. "Is... Is that Yakon?" Shin asked. The creature only bellowed a growl while tapping around the group on it`s thinly built hind legs. Goku walked around the inside circle pattern, blocking any attack route the creature had to make a strike on Gohan, Vegeta or the Kaioshin.   
  
"Eep!" Goku shouted, flinging himself up and out of the way as Yakon`s huge hand swiped through the art at him. It didn`t announce it`s attacks either, not by screaming, flexing, powering up or anything else. They were totally at random, and Goku found it a nice challenge despite the fact he wasn`t fighting at his hardest. Goku found himself at least even speed with the creature though, recoiling out of the way as it jumped up and slashed out with it`s left talon, seeming to barely miss him.   
  
The two rebounded off of the ceiling and Goku sprang up off of the creature`s back, using it`s size to his advantage. Yakon landed perfectly in a crouch on all fours while Goku flipped across the room and bounced off of one wall to the next twice before landing to the creature`s right, landing easily in a ready stance with his head down.   
  
And then the fabric of his overshirt toar in a perfect cut. Yakon grinned.   
  
"Wow, he`s faster than he looks," Goku commented surprisedly, staring at the ripped threads of his overshirt.   
  
_ This time I'm a let it all come out this time   
I'm a stand up and shout  
  
_ "Not bad speed for something that big," Gohan thought aloud. "Could certainly outpace anything else that big that I`ve ever seen," he added. "We should gang up on him," Shin suggested tensely. "Nah, Dad has this one in the bag already, just watch," Gohan replied.   
  
"**Heh, heh, heh...**" Yakon chuckled, extending it`s larger claws from it`s forearms and wiggling them from side to side briefly. Goku blinked. "Wow, those claws of his are retractable... I`m impressed," he mused.   
  
"Excellent Yakon, _excellent_!" The same shrill voice from earlier said from no where and everywhere at once. "Now kill them all, except the Kaioshin. We may have enough energy to revive Buu by the end of the day, yet!" Babidee shouted. "And to speed things up..."   
  
"Here we go again," Gohan predicted.   
  
"I`ll take you all to your favorite planet: The World of Darkness in the Black Abyss!" Babidee stated. "**Yay!**" Yakon replied, grinning from one side of his face to the next, something he was literally capable of given how large his mouth was.   
  
  
"Hah, Yakon should be able to beat them easily enough as it is," Dabura thought aloud, knowing he was wrong. "Probably, but better to be on the safe side. If they get desperate, they`ll use big energy attacks and that _could_ blow up the ship. If that happened, Buu would wake up on empty, with no power at all!"   
  
"I see..."   
  
"It pays to be smart, Dabura," Babidee commented before placing his hands out. "**_PAPARA PA PA!!!_**"   
  
  
"Eh?! I can`t see a thing!" Gohan shouted. "Neither can I!" Vegeta replied. "Damn," Kaioshin said to himself. "**But I can see _you_ perfectly,**" Yakon replied to them all, jumping up and twisting into a flip before falling down towards Goku with the grace of a predatory hawk. _"**I`ll start with this one first,**"_ the huge monster thought to itself during the descent.   
  
Ground screeched and talons sheered through, going six feet deep beneath the surface before gouging back out with a whistle, missing their intended target badly. Goku had dodged out of the way, flying up and over Yakon`s back and landing behind it in a blur before streaking back over and kicking the creature in the nose. Stunned, Yakon fell back, bruised green taking precidence over it`s normal forest coloring in the pitch black of the darkened world.   
  
"**Huh?!**" It demanded. "Your master really underestimated us, we don`t _need_ to see you to fight you," Goku answered. "All a matter of air currents and ki location," he added. "That and you can smell the big bastard from five miles away," Vegeta interjected. "That too," Goku corrected himself, lowering into a stance. "There are ways for us to see you though, it isn`t that hard really..."   
  
Powering up, Goku let out a grunt and flared straight up into Super Saiyan, blasting back a small cloud of dust and dirt on the blackened ground as a golden light filled the area, bright as the sun itself. His hair had risen up like a crown now, it was a golden metallic shade, and his eyes had faded to teal as well. "Much better," he stated with a smirk.   
  
  
"**_WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!_**" Babidee shrieked. "**_HE`S CHANGED! WHAT`S HAPPENED TO HIM?!_**" Babidee demanded. "He`s transformed," Dabura replied. "Just like the one I`m guessing is his son, as well as the other," he added. "What the hell does it do?!" Babidee demanded. "It`s a power increase and a light show, nothing Yakon shouldn`t be able to defeat," Dabura answered calmly. "I hope so..."   
  
_ "Only a matter of time,"_ Dabura thought, knowing Babidee wasn`t paying attention to him.   
  
  
"You should have known it was pointless to darken the room," Goku stated. Yakon only smiled that toothy grin of his, the blood from his previous meal slowly drying around his mouth. "**Eh heh, heh, heh... So the Dark Abyss isn`t working...**" It began. "What? Aren`t you worried?" Goku asked. "**No...**" Yakon replied, opening it`s mouth as wide as it possibly could go. "Uhm..."   
  
"He isn`t powering up," Gohan commented. "What`s he doing?" He asked himself. "Probably about to belch his fat brains out," Vegeta replied sourly. "**_MINE!!!_**" Yakon howled. Goku lurched forward as if being blown by a strong wind from behind, almost losing his standing on the black ground. It really _was_ akin to being hit by a strong gust of wind.   
  
Or getting yanked towards a vacuum cleaner. Goku`s aura suddenly, literally, ripped off of him, balling up into a golden star the size of a beach ball and floating right into Yakon`s mouth. His hair blackened and his eyes followed suit, Goku was stunned. "What the heck?" Gohan asked. "Huh?" Goku sounded, staring himself over.   
  
"Kakarot`s back to normal..." Vegeta said to himself. "That`s right! Yakon eats light energy! Goku`s Super Saiyan form is an ideal snack for it," Kaioshin yelped out. "**Delicious! That was the best meal I`ve ever eaten in my life!**" Yakon stated. "**Give me more?**" It requested curiously, retracting it`s talons with a swish.   
  
"Dad! Don`t change into a Super Saiyan, he _eats_ light energy!" Gohan shouted. "Huh?" Goku asked. "**By all means, transform again! That was a delicious treat,**" Yakon sighed to itself happily. "... Okay," Goku grinned. "I`ll feed you..." Goku began, powering up slowly. "Dad! Don`t do that!" Gohan shouted. "Shut up brat, he`s planning something," Vegeta replied.   
  
_ I'm a do things my way  
It's my way, my way   
Or the highway  
  
_ "Don`t worry about me Gohan, I can handle myself!" Goku yelled back at his son, even as the air rushed around him. "**You`re serious?!**" Yakon asked in surprise. "I don`t bluff," Goku replied, flaring up into Super Saiyan once again with a blast of hot air and light, bathing the area in more brightness than it had ever seen in all of it`s many millions of years existing. "Ready?" He asked, his hair becoming golden, his eyes fading to teal all over again.   
  
"**_HAH!_ I`m so happy, finally, a real idiot!**" Yakon shouted in joy. "**I can finally feast again!**"   
  
"Goku _is_ being an idiot, this isn`t a game!" Shin yelled. "Shut up and watch, he`s got a plan. He`s an idiot savant, after all," Vegeta replied. Shin grunted and stood down, waiting to see just how a mere Earthling could take on one of the biggest terrors in the universe.   
  
"Eat up big guy," Goku ordered, flaring his aura up to twice his own size. Yakon eagerly opened it`s mouth, and as a result, Goku stumbled forward a step and then held firm, his aura being vaccumed into Yakon`s mouth by the truckload. "Here we go!" Goku shouted, stepping back into his former position and keeping his power level steady, even against Yakon`s ability to consume it.   
  
Yakon slowly began to puff up at it`s gut, pulling in more and more energy from Goku`s aura. "Thaaat`s it, keep eatin` big guy, you`re about to get a special treat," Goku said with a smirk, tensing up.   
  
"What?!" Vegeta shouted, feeling Goku`s energy suddenly sky rocket.   
  
"**_EAT THIS!!!_**" Goku screamed, his entire body briefly changing as a crack of electric blue thundered around his aura for several seconds. Yakon went wide eyed, it was too late to even try to stop the load of energy. Wincing it`s eyes shut, the creature faltered back as a sphere of energy five times as intense as the first slammed into the back of it`s throat.   
  
"That`s _gotta_ hurt," Gohan commented as Yakon exploded in a ball of golden flame. Goku powered back down to a lowered status of Super Saiyan, breathing a little harder than usual but smiling to himself all the same. "I... See..." Vegeta thought aloud. "He did it!" Shin yelled. "With energy to spare no less," Vegeta replied while walking forward. "The door`s open! Come on everyone!" Goku shouted, hopping down into the small tunnel while powering back down to normal. Gohan and Shin followed first this time, and Vegeta wasn`t far behind them.   
  
_ "Great. So that bastard can go Beyond now as well, better than his son too. If only by a little,"_ Vegeta grumbled in thought. Bad enough that he`d yet to finish closing the gap he had with Gohan, bad enough he was only barely qualified as the second strongest on the Earth, bad enough that Piccolo and Zangya could both give him not just a hard run for his money but possibly beat him, but now he had to deal with the fact that he was the only Saiyan left aside from children who couldn`t surpass the limits of the first level.   
  
He was stuck at the Kindergarden level while the other two were already graduating college with honors.   
  
_ Just one more fight about a lotta things  
And I will give up everything to be on my own again  
Free again...   
  
"This is really starting to piss me off..."_ Vegeta thought to himself. "I`d better not have to wait for whatever sorry sack of shit they intend to use on Stage Three," he growled as the quartet descended through the tunnel. "Don`t worry Vegeta, it`ll probably be more than worth the wait," Gohan offereed. "Waiting is for the weak."   
  
Gohan didn`t reply, touching down with a crouch in front of Goku and beside Shin. Vegeta landed on his left, glaring daggers at the door. It was time to wait. Again.   
  
_ This time I'm a let it all come out  
This time I'm a stand up and shout  
I'm a do things my way  
It's my way, my way   
Or the highway  
  
_ "**_HURRY THE HELL UP!!!_**" Vegeta screamed impatiently.   
  
  
Dabura`s plan was gradually coming to fruition. He smiled to himself and bowed to the sorcerer he had so long played patsy too, speaking in as loyal a voice as any devil could manage. "_I_ will be the one they face on Stage Three," he stated more than requested. Babidee detected a trace of defiance in his attitude but said nothing of it, content to continue manipulating his favored underling`s whims to suit his own needs. "Take time to fully power up first," Babidee commanded. "Of course, my master," Dabura replied.   
  
The large, pinkish skinned figure turned around, walking towards the elevator that would carry him directly into the darkened room he used only for meditation. "Dabura..."   
  
He halted, craning his neck to glance at Babidee. "Do you have some sort of plan?" He asked. Dabura only gave a nod. "I may not be able to defeat the youngest among them, and possibly not the one he calls a father, but they fight alone only, and I _know_ I can defeat Vegeta," he stated. "And if you can`t?" Babidee asked. "Who said I was out to kill him as it is? I have a nice present waiting for you if I cannot defeat him."   
  
Babidee stared at his second in command in a mix of contempt, curiosity and anticipation, watching as Dabura vanished into the elevator shaft and took towards his meditation room. _"It had better be worth the effort I put into waiting,"_ Babidee thought. _"I **hate** surprises."_   
  
_ This time I'm a let it all come out  
This time I'm a stand up and shout  
I'm a do things my way  
It's my way, my way or the highway   
  
_ "Tra la la la, fa la la la la, **_GET YOUR ASSES OUT HERE ALREADY!!!_**"   
  
"Well, I see Vegeta hasn`t changed that much," Goku observed. "He`s eased up a bit," Gohan replied. "Would`ve already blown up the ship and the entire continent around it if he hadn`t," he added. "Good point. Think Bulma`s whipped him?" Goku asked. "... Dad, this is _Bulma_ we`re talking about. You`re either whipped by her or you die a painful, annoying death," Gohan replied with added sarcasm. "True... Your mother`s not too shabby about getting her way either but I don`t think she ever resorted to the kinda things Bulma`s pulled..."   
  
"Such as half of Vegeta`s hair out of his scalp with a vaccum?"   
  
"... Ouch..."   
  
"**_THAT ISN`T FUNNY YOU SHITHEADS!!!_**"   
  
"Or the time she sprayed police level pepper spray in his boxers right before he went into the Room of Spirit and Time the first time."   
  
"I remember that..."   
  
"**_SHUT THE HELL UP!!!_**"   
  
"Or the time she burned his pink 'Bad Man' shirt."   
  
"**_THAT IS WAY OVER THE LINE YOU LITTLE BASTARD!!!_**" Vegeta screamed in an irate rage, rattling the whole ship as a result. The prior comments hadn`t been too bad, but burning that sacred pink shirt?! **_BLASPHEMY!!!_**  
  
"So how`s school been?" Goku asked. "Pretty good I suppose," Gohan replied, eager for a change of subject. "Mom actually stuck me in public a few years back," he added. "Wow... She really eased off, huh?" Goku asked. "Yeah, I think it was right after the last Budoukai. Videl won that one," Gohan explained. "Videl won a Budoukai? With _you_ in it?" Goku asked. "Did you let her... Win... Ohhhhh, I get it," Goku said with a grin. "It`s not like that! Yet!" Gohan replied, blushing furiously. "I took on Cell in the round before the Finals and then we sorta... Ran out of Senzu beans," Gohan replied. "Ah. I see... How strong is that guy anyway?" Goku asked. "Too strong for my tastes," Gohan answered sourly.   
  
"How`d you beat him?" Goku asked, sparing a glance over at Vegeta, who was grumbling incoherently again, this time walking a circular trench into the floor. "Smacked him out of the ring with a Kame Hame Ha," Gohan answered. "Was a pretty tough battle," he added. "Fight of your life-type stuff?" Goku asked. "You mean like your fight with Frieza or Vegeta?"   
  
"Pretty much."   
  
"Yeah, about that."   
  
"**_COME ON ALREADY! I`M NOT GETTING ANY YOUNGER!!!_**"   
  
"I think my ears just started bleeding..." Goku mumbled. "Yeah, Vegeta does have that effect on people," Gohan replied.   
  
_ "They`re all absolutely insane,"_ Shin thought, mouth hanging open.   
  
  
"Come on Trunks, we gotta hurry!" Goten yelled. "Well if you hadn`t let them stab you, we wouldn`t have to be hurrying at all! We`d be there already!" Trunks replied, speeding up to where he was flying shoulder to shoulder with Goten. "Let them stab me? I couldn`t even move!" Goten replied. "Still," Trunks retorted. "Could`ve at least gone after `em sooner," Trunks pointed out. "Then Gohan woulda killed us both," Goten replied calmly. "... Oh. Yeah, good point. Wanna just go Super?" Trunks asked.   
  
"Think we`d get to them faster?" Goten replied. "Well _duh_," Trunks answered. "Then let`s go."   
  
Both boys let out yells and powered up, rattling the air around them while a pair of twin suns ignited to life around them, golden in every sense of the word, pulsing with life. Their eyes faded from blue and black to a solid shade of teal, and their hair also changed, rising up into differing crowns with the same metallic golden color. "Now _step on it_!" Goten ordered, blasting off all of a quarter of a second before Trunks.   
  
  
"So in other words, they went off to go fight another new evil and Goten and Trunks just sort of faked one needing to puke then went after them?" Bulma asked. "Yeah, Gohan and Trunks both almost took Goku and Piccolo`s heads off too. Gohan was about ready to blow up the entire arena to get Goku to let go of him," Videl answered. "And then he angrily told you to stay behind?" Yamcha asked. "Yep."   
  
"This can`t be good," Roshi muttered.   
  
  
"**_GET OUT OF THE GOD DAMN ELEVATOR ALREADY YOU CHICKEN SHIT!!!_**"   
  
"You know, after a while it`s almost bearable..." Gohan commented. "I think my ears have clogged from the blood," Goku replied.   
  
And then the door slid open. Vegeta glared at it, unseeing of whoever was waiting. "About damn time," he growled. "Like you honestly expected much better?" The deep, villainous voice asked from the shadows of the doorway. "I don`t care you big pink shit, get out and fight me already," Vegeta ordered. "Of course," Dabura replied, slowly stepping his way into the room with a demonic grin fitting of his title. "Good, they sent the strongest punk they`ve got to fight me," Vegeta commented.   
  
"Do you expect any less of Babidee? He likes to give his worthiest adversaries more credit than that..."   
  
"Do I care?" Vegeta asked. "No, but you should," Dabura replied. "You sure you don`t need some help this time Vegeta?" Goku asked. "He seems stronger than Cell in his Super Perfect form and..."   
  
"Can it carrot bitch," Vegeta replied. "Have it your way," Goku shrugged.   
  
_ Someday you'll see things my way  
Cause you never know  
No ya never know when your gonna go  
Someday, you'll see things my way cause you never know  
No ya never know when your gonna go  
  
_ "Before we begin however," Dabura held out a hand as if to say 'stop.' "Lord Babidee, a change in scenery, please?" Dabura requested. "Where?" The shrill, small voice from earlier asked. "A planet like this one, I don`t want an unfair advantage, of course," Dabura replied. "You`re really serious then, eh?" The voice asked. "So be it..."   
  
"**_PAPARA PA PA!!!_**"   
  
And again, the scenery changed. Massive winds filled the room, the background faded to black streaked the color of stars and the group soon found themselves standing on a barren world. The seas were red and pink, the ground was orange. Spires of rock and stone rose up from the ground for miles around, and a singular mountain dotted the landscape to the North. To the South was nothing but the sea, and the skies, dotted with yellow clouds like on Namek, was pinkish in hew. The world 'desolate' fit the area like a glove.   
  
"Shall we begin?" Vegeta asked, lowering himself into a fighting stance. Dabura only grinned in response, powering up and waiting. "Come and get me, _Prince_."   
  
Vegeta`s eyes narrowed. In a blur, he rushed forward, only to vanish from sight. Dabura responded in kind.   
  
  
"Where`d they go?!" Trunks shouted, halting in an instant. Goten paused a few feet ahead of him. "I can`t feel them either," he said in surprise. "Gone," Jack calmly said. "What do we do now?" Goten asked. "I don`t know..." Trunks replied, looking around and feeling for them. "But I can feel powers up ahead, not very high but they`re there. Should we?" He asked. "Let`s wait," Goten replied. "Sissy," Trunks taunted. "Stupidity goeth before a fall," Goten calmly paraphrased.   
  
"Since when did you start speakin` like that?" Trunks asked. "I dunno."   
  
  
On a barren red world, the battle to determine the fate of a former prince of a dead world - the last truly _living_ pure blooded Saiyan in the universe - raged as bitterly as any battle ever fought. Vegeta had yet to go into Super Saiyan, Dabura was merely enjoying himself at the time. In the eyes of the onlookers, things had yet to truly get intense, as the prince and the king locked fists together atop the tallest spiral of the surrounding landscape.   
  
"Is this all you`ve got Vegeta?!" Dabura asked, pressuring his fist against that of Vegeta, who pressured back with as much force as he could currently apply. "**_Is it_**?!" Dabura demanded, beginning to push Vegeta back from the center. "**_IS THIS ALL YOU CAN THROW AT ME?!_**" Dabura howled. Vegeta let out a grunt and began to pour more strength into his arm, unblocking the seemingly endless stream of power beneath the surface. The pillar shook, rattling off bits of stone before the former prince let out the loudest scream of the day yet, forcibly imploding the pillar beneath their feet, leveling the others within a mile of the two combatants into an outward spiraling pattern as a fierce golden glow blazed up around his form. His eyes, formerly midnight blue, almost black unless viewed properly, slid out of their former color, glowing golden briefly before fading back to teal. His hair lengthened a small amount, fanning out a bit more than usual and straightening before fading to golden.   
  
Dabura faltered back under the force of the scream and the transformation accompanying it, more in surprise than in actual pain. Vegeta passed right by him, shooting like a comet towards the ground only to reorient his course at the last second and come blazing right back at Dabura. The Demon King again twisted out of the way, straightening his arm at Vegeta and letting out a shout, a kiai, at the former prince. Vegeta was caught off gaurd more than he was hurt, and he tumbled through the air as a result, losing control briefly before stopping, upside down, glaring back at Dabura.   
  
"Let the real fighting begin," he muttered.   
  
Dabura smiled and phased out, an action followed swiftly by Vegeta, who reappeared down in the rocks a second later while Dabura seemed to appear up in the skies, powering up a low level blast to hurl at the ground.   
  
"Big Bang Attack!" Vegeta yelled, firing off a massive bolt of energy from a flat palm up into the skies. The attack obliterated Dabura`s magic powered after image, exposing the real Dabura to be hovering off to the right, but by then it was too late for Vegeta to correct his attack. Dabura threw the ball of ki towards the ground with no hesitation, and Vegeta dashed through the paths in the rocks, vanishing from sight an instant later.   
  
The attack hit into where he had been standing with perfect accuracy, blasting out a nicely sized crater in the ground while Vegeta himself flew back up from beneath the field of overturned spires, throwing his lower body into a one legged kick, which Dabura soundly dodged. The Demon King swung his arm out but Vegeta caught it, dragging the larger fighter up close and kneeing him twice in the stomach, following this up with a powerful uppercut into the jaw. A spurt of purple trickled out of Dabura`s mouth as a result, but he righted himself quickly, smashing his forehead into that of Vegeta and sending the semi-bruised Saiyan drifting away.   
  
"You must realize you cannot win," Dabura stated. "As if a mere demon can hope to take me?" Vegeta asked, righting himself with a smirk. "I didn`t even feel that," he added as an after thought. "Then you will feel this," Dabura replied, holding his hand towards the sky. "**_SWORD!!!_**" He screamed, and the same sword he had originally used years earlier to slice through Son Gohan materialized in his open hand, big and intimidating as ever.   
  
"Prepare to die," Dabura calmly smiled. "After you, Pinky," Vegeta replied.   
  
_ Just one more fight  
And I'll be history  
Yes, I will straight up leave your shit   
And you'll be the one who's left missing me   
  
_ Dabura lashed out twice, Vegeta dodged each time. "Good," Dabura said. He didn`t bother elaborating, striking out again once, then twice, then a third time to try and impale Vegeta. The first missed, Vegeta twisted out of the way. The second, Vegeta slapped the flat side of the sword`s blade away and the third, the former prince caught between his hands, holding back soundly. "Is this the depths of the _great_ Demon King`s strength?" Vegeta mocked, casually ripping the sword in half from between his hands, then throwing the severed portion down into the sea. Dabura stared at the broken weapon and then flung it over his shoulder.   
  
"Not at all..."   
  
Dabura burst forward again, only to stop at the last second and allow Vegeta`s reflexive kick to trail right by in front of his nose. The Demon King then lashed out, throwing a hand forward and shouting out. "Honoo no Tama!" He called out, throwing a large ball of fire right into Vegeta`s back, causing the former prince to reel into a flip and hover upside down again, gnawing on his tongue. "There`s a lot more where that came from," Dabura threatened.   
  
_ This time I'm a let it all come out  
This time I'm a stand up and shout   
I'm a do things my way  
It's my way, my way or the highway  
  
_ Vegeta snorted, holding his hands out to either side and calmly smirking. "Tell me, Demon King... Do you feel fear?" Vegeta asked, gradually pooling his power into either hand. "The Demon King fears no mortal," Dabura replied, almost insulted. "Do you know why you should?" Vegeta asked. "Why?" Dabura replied. "Because it might have allowed you to live through fighting me!"   
  
"**_FINAL FLASH!!!_**"   
  
Dabura dropped down, barely avoiding the massive bolt of energy that lanced out from Vegeta`s hands. His cloak wasn`t so lucky, scorched off entirely beneath the mid-section, and his hair singed at the already ink black edges, while the beam itself shot off towards the lower atmosphere only to re-orient it`s course, balling up and shooting right back while Vegeta jerked his hands to keep his aim squarely on Dabura.   
  
"A nice attack but not good enough," Dabura stated, crossing his arms over his chest. "Try it again... I dare you," he taunted.   
  
"Why bother when it`s not over yet?" Vegeta asked. "Eh?" Dabura rose an eyebrow. "Behind you, dumb ass," Vegeta answered. "Do you honestly believe I`d ever fall for the third oldest trick in the First Book?" Dabura asked. "Who said I was trying to trick you?" Vegeta asked as the attack hit Dabura from behind, detonating on impact with the huge demon`s broad shoulderblades, hurling Dabura forward and right into Vegeta`s leg, which caught him twice, first in the face with his knee, then again a few flips later in the stomach with his foot, causing Dabura to lurch forward and right into a fist, which threw Dabura right back into the explosion.   
  
_ This time I'm a let it all come out  
This time I'm a stand up and shout  
I'm a do things my way  
It's my way, my way or the highway   
  
"Definately worth trying,"_ Dabura mused as he emerged out of the other side of the explosion, his cape entirely burned off, his shirt down by a sleeve, the other sleeve only half there, blood and burn marks staining his exposed skin and his pants missing below the right knee. _"Master Babidee!"_ Dabura called out, straightening up.   
  
Vegeta swung around the explosion, leering aggressively over at Dabura with murder in his eyes. _"What is it now?"_ Babidee asked. _"It`s as I believed. The one named Vegeta not only has a terrible darkness in his heart, but also a terrible power as well,"_ Dabura reported. _"All too easy to convert to your side of this game."_   
  
_ "That was the surprise?"_ Babidee asked. _"Yes,"_ Dabura replied, calmly floating to the ground. _"Dabura... This is... This is **wonderful**!"_ Babidee replied. "It seems there`s been a sudden change in plans," Dabura stated, just as the room faded back to reality, appearing as it had been before Babidee teleported the occupants. Vegeta found himself no longer marred by a bruise, and Dabura`s clothing and skin returned to normal, no longer injured or torn in any way.   
  
"**_WHAT?!_**" Vegeta demanded. "We`ve found a new warrior, capable of defeating all of you. It`s just a matter of bringing him up to speed," Dabura exclaimed, stepping back through the door he came through, while the still Super Saiyan Vegeta jumped towards it, intent on ripping the door down and continuing his battle even at the cost of disturbing Buu. Goku stopped him though, grabbing his ankle and yanking him back by force, though he was visibly strained to do it. "_No_ Vegeta!" He yelled.   
  
"**_BASTARDS!!!_**" Vegeta howled at the door, powering back down to normal with an angry glare at it.   
  
  
"This is wonderful Dabura, look at his arrogance, his quick temper, **_EVERYTHING_**," Babidee exclaimed as his chief underling returned, bowing before the shortly built sorcerer with a smile. "It is as I said, Master," Dabura replied. "Oh yes, yes, _yes_, this will do **_quite_** nicely!" Babidee replied. "He`ll kill all three of them without anyone ever having to break so much as a sweat in the process!"   
  
"Indeed."   
  
"Shall I begin?" Babidee asked, howling with delight.   
  
"I cannot tell you what to do, Master Babidee, but please do," Dabura requested.   
  
_ Someday you'll see things my way  
Cause you never know  
When ya never know when your gonna go  
Someday, you'll see things my way cause you never know  
When ya never know  
  
"And so it begins..."_ Dabura thought with a feral grin, watching as Babidee placed his hands on the crystal ball before him and shouted.   
  
"**_PAPARA PA PA!!!_**"   
  
_

End Part Six  
  


* * *

  
  


_ **Author`s Note:** Ahehehehahehehehahehehehahahahahahahaha! **_CLIFFHANGER!!!_** *Cackles maniacally.*  
  
And yes, now that ya mention it diamond, Yamcha Soza **does** remind me of Sammy Sosa, a connection added to by the fact Yamcha plays Baseball... "Yammy Soza..." Never thought of it like that :P 


	7. Just Got Wicked

  
  
**Disclaimer:** Don`t own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations  
** _Just Got Wicked   
  
  
  
_

"**_GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE YOU PINK SON OF A BITCH!!! I`M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET!!!_**" Vegeta howled, causing the door he was screaming at to rattle on it`s frame violently enough to dent it at the center. "Calm down, Vegeta! It just proves he`s scared of yo-" "_**SCREW THIS! I`VE HAD ENOUGH WAITING KAKAROT, I`M TAKING THIS OPERATION OVER RIGHT NOW!!!**_" Vegeta screamed, powering up a blast into existence in front of his open palm. "And I`m going to start by blowing up this **_GOD DAMNED_** ship like I should have right from the start!" He yelled, only to find his arm being restrained.   
  
"_Cool it_," Goku ordered, forcibly jerking Vegeta`s hand up. "Calm down Vegeta, that`s far enough," he added. "Get off of me you bastard," Vegeta growled. "I don`t like this anymore than you do but we don`t have a choice in it."   
  
"Unhand me, if you value your afterlife."   
  
Kaioshin stared blankly at Vegeta as if he was looking Death in it`s face all over again. _"He`s the one. He`s the one Dabura was talking about,"_ he thought to himself with a nervous twitch. "Something wrong?" Gohan asked. "Too late..." Shin answered.   
  
"**_PAPARA PA PA!!!_**"   
  
"Far... Too late..."   
  
_ I can taste your innocence   
So young and sweet like mother made ya   
Everything froze into ice   
  
"Yes, you`ll do so very nicely..."   
  
These mother fuckers **just got WICKED! **_  
  
"**_AGH!!!_**" Vegeta screamed, lurching forward and holding onto the sides of his head with a pained expression. "Vegeta?" Gohan asked, quickly glancing over to him. "What`s wrong?" Goku demanded, rushing towards the former prince. "Something`s attacking me..." Vegeta replied, stumbling around in pain. It felt like his brain was going to shatter and explode in his skull. "Inside... My head..." He added, losing his balance for a moment and going down to one knee.   
  
"Fight it Vegeta, fight it!" Shin yelled.   
  
_ "Yes, fight it for the people who will betray you, just as they always have and always will,"_ Babidee ordered. "No..." Vegeta muttered.   
  
_ Well, I can't explain this little man   
Taken over, can't explain the way   
That I feel  
  
_ "**_NO!!! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!!_**" Vegeta screamed, fighting his way back up onto his feet as the room shook about, like it was struggling to hold him in place. _"What do you want Vegeta? Weakness? Or do you want to be strong? **The pride of the Saiyan race once again**!"_ Babidee`s magics promised.   
  
"**_GET THE HELL OUT OF MY MIND!!!_**" Vegeta screamed again, even louder this time, causing the abused door to literally tear off of it`s hinges and stab into the back of the elevator shaft behind it. "What`s going on?!" Goku demanded. "It`s Babidee, Dabura spoke of a fighter who could defeat us all! _Vegeta is that fighter_!" Shin exclaimed over the roar of rising ki in the room. It was almost a struggle to stay on his feet.   
  
_ Well, I can't explain this little man   
Taken over, can't explain the way   
That I feel  
  
_ "**_GET OUT!!!_**" Vegeta howled, powering up into the first level of Super Saiyan on reflex to an emotion he so rarely felt. It was an emotion he usually flat out _refused_ to feel, but now? Now it was overtaking him in a way that it had never done before, possessing every fiber of his being, the herald to the numbness growing across his body and the start of the growing blackness staining his heart.   
  
The emotion was fear. Vegeta blew the other three from where they were standing with another yell of pain, golden fire spreading off of his body in a whirlwind and flattening Shin out to a wall. He wasn`t the weakest at the moment, if anything with all three of them either normal or beneath the second level, he was the strongest in the room. It had taken him off gaurd entirely though, knocking him back and plastering him into the wall, while Goku and Gohan struggled to stay on their feet without being forcibly torn off of the floor themselves. _  
  
"Do you feel that Vegeta? Do you feel the power lying beneath? I can bring that out you know, as much as you want, all of it if that`s what you feel like..."   
  
_ "**_I DON`T WANT THAT!!! GET THE HELL OUT!!!_**" Vegeta screamed in reply to the voice of Babidee`s magics, causing the wizard himself to lick his lips at the challenge, pouring more effort into things. Vegeta fell to his knees again, still in Super Saiyan, still screaming his lungs out and still battling the demon threatening to take control.   
  
"Fight it Vegeta, let go of your anger and hate! You`re different now, you don`t need to listen to him," Shin stated, prying himself off of the wall and finding the resolve to force him to stand beside Vegeta, even as the force of the former prince`s aura sheered around the room. "Be good, be innocent!"   
  
"I`m not innocent!" Vegeta screamed. "**_I JUST WANT THIS FUCKING SORCERER OUT OF MY HEAD!!!_**"   
  
Vegeta`s scream again tore Shin off of his feet, throwing him back into the wall twice as hard. It was then that the former prince rose from the ground, screaming still, even as a second aura ignited around him, the first dying down after a few seconds. Gohan, freed from the effects of the earlier tornado, rushed towards Vegeta and attempted to jump towards him, only to be struck three times by crimson lightning, each a bit more intense than the last. His body bounced off of the floor and skidded to a halt against the nearest wall.   
  
"Gohan!"   
  
"I`m alright," Gohan replied, hauling himself up with speed, just in time to watch Vegeta finish screaming and pause up in the air. The lightning had stopped, the shaking had stopped. His aura burned out and the former prince tumbled to the floor, landing on his knees and collapsing forward to rest himself on his elbows, face pressed to the floor, hidden from view.   
  
_ Everyone got twisted up   
All your friends got behind   
My back and broke it cuz   
It's my world  
  
_ "Vegeta?" Gohan asked, stepping towards the fallen warrior and reaching towards him. "Don`t touch him, it may be too late..." Shin advised, kneeling next to Vegeta himself. Unlike the others, he`d seen Majin power in action. He didn`t like it but he`d seen one person break it and if that could be done...   
  
"Don`t worry Vegeta, we`ll get you all the help you need," Shin said in as soothing a voice as he could manage. The sounds of sobbing could be heard from the former prince, but those were quick to change. Slowly, the sound of a sob turned to the sound of a laugh as psychotic and vile as any that had ever been heard. Vegeta raised his head, laughing all the while. He`d changed. The area around his eyes had faded to black, veins bulged out across his exposed skin and on his forehead rested the single sign that proved what Shin had already feared. It was the symbol of the Majin, that strangely styled, black 'M' on the forehead.   
  
The last of the line of Vegeta had fallen from grace once again.   
  
  
"Wonderful, _wonderful_!" Babidee cheered for himself, dancing from side to side with a laugh as infectious as it was ear grating. "Indeed, he will get us all the damage energy needed to revive Buu, easily."   
  
"Oh yes... Dabura, this is the best present I`ve ever had! We may yet revive Buu by the end of the day," Babidee exclaimed. "Now, let`s get them somewhere good to fight, hm?" Babidee asked. Dabura grinned. "The Tenkaichi Budoukai arena," he suggested, knowing it had likely yet to finish emptying with the way humans were about leaving places in groups. "Wonderful idea Dabura, you`re on a role today!"   
  
"Thank you, Master."   
  
"**_PAPARA PA PA!!!_**" Babidee screamed.   
  
  
Again, the scenery changed. It wasn`t the spectacular kinds of changes as they`d had the last time, there wasn`t a pitch black background streaked with star colored lines, instead though, the background was a darkened blue, interwoven with streaks of every color the eye could percieve. There was a strong wind as well, and the only ground really visible was the door to the lower level. Vegeta smiled demonically, focusing his eyes, and all of his attention, on one person. Goku. Kakarot. The man who had stood against him so many years earlier.   
  
And then the scenery froze back to normal. The lines ceased blurring and the foor were standing plainly in the middle of an all-too-familiar concrete 50x50 concrete square in the middle of an even more familiar stadium. "We`re back in the arena," Gohan stated while glancing around, spotting Videl, Bulma, Yamcha and a few others far up in the walkway behind and above the stands. _  
  
"Good, now kill them Vegeta. Kill them all, take their energy for Majin Buu!"_ Babidee commanded. "Shut up!" Vegeta growled in reply. "My only concern is Kakarot! I don`t care about the rest," he added with obvious anger. Babidee was stunned. _"Kill them vegeta... Kill them all right this very instant!"   
  
_ "If you want death so badly... I`ll give it to you."   
  
  
"What the heck is going on down there," Videl asked, leaning against the railing with a curious look. "It`s them," Yamcha replied. "Looks like they`re back," he added. "Something`s different about Vegeta though," Roshi interrupted. "Looks like he`s just powering up but yeah, something`s different," Yamcha replied. "How so?" Videl asked.   
  
"Darker. Far darker than anything I`ve ever felt," Roshi muttered. Bulma spared a glance at the rest of the group and cursed herself for never having learned how to detect ki. It would have definately come in handy but she didn`t truly need it to know that _something_ had changed.   
  
_ 1 - 2 - 3...   
Here I come with the wicked...   
  
_ "It`s time Kakarot," Vegeta stated, slowly raising his hand at the other Saiyan with a grin. "For what?" Goku asked, lowering himself down a bit. Vegeta just smirked, flattening his hand out perfectly and firing off a beam of energy at Goku, who yelped in shock and threw his arms up to defend. Harder and harder the attack forced him back, more and more Goku tried to defend but it was all in vain. After a mere several seconds, Goku was on the edge of the ring, struggling to stand against the power of the attack being forced at him.   
  
"Vegeta, no!" Gohan shouted, rushing towards Vegeta. By then it was too late though. Goku let out a shocked yell and flipped up over the attack, screaming out moments later. "**_GET OUT OF THERE!!!_**" He begged, watching the hundreds of people still in the stands in Vegeta`s path begin to stampede in an attempt to escape.   
  
And then the blast hit. Gohan halted in his charge, Goku hovered briefly and Shin glared at Vegeta with a look to be described only as murder in his eyes. "Vegeta..."   
  
The blast didn`t stop there either. After plowing through hundreds of people, and causing an explosive ball of fire that consumed a hundred more, easily, it continued on, punching straight through the areana and hitting somewhere in the heart of the city, taking the lives of another thousand in nothing but a heartbeat. People screamed, most were frozen to their seats in shocked horror as the blast detonated, sending off a mushroom cloud big enough to put many small scale atomic bombs to shame, knocking over some buildings, sheering out massive sections of others and disintegrating any debris before it could even get halfway out of the explosion.   
  
Goku finally landed with a pair of taps on the floor, straightening up and turning to face the explosion in shock. It had caught him off gaurd as much as it had caught everyone else, he was so surprised all he could really do was stare.   
  
Stare and be angry.   
  
"Shame on you," he growled. "The Vegeta I know would`ve _never_ done that," he added. "Yes, he would," Vegeta replied. "I`m worse."   
  
Vegeta slowly lowered one hand and then raised the other, smirking the entire time. "Don`t do it Vegeta!" Gohan yelled, only to watch the Prince again fire off another blast. It wasn`t as powerful this time but it was certainly powerful enough for the task he`d made it for. In an instant, two hundred more lives were snuffed out, and Gohan looked up in time to note that Bulma had passed out and Yamcha was using himself to try and shield the rest of them, and doing a fairly good job of it at that.   
  
Debris poured through the air, followed by smoke, but Vegeta stood silently, ominously in the ring, never moving his body an inch, though he did move his head, raising it up and tilting it towards the explosion with a grin to be described only as psychotic. The world had indeed become a very dark place, as Vegeta lowered his head back down, the smoke briefly obscuring his look of satisfaction.   
  
Goku had seen all he could stand. There was a bright flash and his hair shocked upright, back into the errant crown it had been when he`d been fighting with Yakon, turning gold an instant lighter while his eyes faded to teal, a golden aura igniting up from his feet seconds later. "Goku, don`t do it!" Shin ordered. _"I should have known this would happen, maybe if I`d just gotten Goku alone to come, or Gohan, this would`ve all turned out differently..."_ He thought sourly.   
  
"You let yourself become possessed, didn`t you?" Goku asked. "You wanted to fight me so badly that it made you go this far?"   
  
Vegeta nodded.   
  
"You`re more pathetic than I thought," Goku stated. "What`s Dad talking about?" Gohan asked, glancing from the group in the stands to his father and Vegeta.   
  
"If I hadn`t done this, I`d never get the chance to fight you! You`d be back in Otherworld by the end of the day and you`d never return! This is the only chance I have to fight you and if you were me, you`d do _exactly_ the same," Vegeta accused. "That`s it?! Y... That`s the reason for this whole stupid thing?!" Shin demanded, almost irate about it all. Vegeta only glanced at him with a sneer.   
  
"Stupid?" He asked. "**_STUPID?! YOU THINK THIS IS A STUPID REASON?!_**" Vegeta demanded. "**_THIS IS EVERYTHING TO ME, I DON`T CARE ABOUT BUU!!!_**" He stated. "Watch your race fall and dwindle, to only a handful, and then tell me what matters more than your own strength?! He surpassed me, we`re both Saiyans, we`re both _Super_ Saiyans, and he _still_ left me in the dust like a Sub-Class ugul rosin!" Vegeta accused, slipping back to his native tongue for all of a second. "**_ME_**, the Prince of the Saiyans, who`s only pride is in my strength!" He continued, accusingly pointing his finger at Goku before lurching forward and glaring into the ground.   
  
"He even spared my life when we fought, and later saved it when he teleported Cell away," he added. "I can`t forgive that. **_ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!_**" Vegeta finished, glaring blankly over to Goku.   
  
"Every breath that clown takes is an insult on my honor, and his debts _must be **paid**_," Vegeta affirmed angrily, balling his hands into fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white from the strain. Goku paused for a moment though, looking at Vegeta with a glare that would cause any normal being to consider suicide a pleasant way to end things.   
  
_ Well, I can't explain this little man   
Taken over, can't explain the way   
That I feel  
  
_ "**_BABIDEE!!!_**" Goku called out, glaring up into the skies. "Move us some place where there aren`t any people! Do that... And then I`ll fight Vegeta!" He yelled. "Wait!" Shin stated, jumping in front of Goku and throwing his arms out, blatantly standing between the two Saiyans. "You will fight Vegeta, _over my dead body_," he stated intensely. Goku only glanced down at him before blinking a few times. "No, _mine_," Gohan stated, roughly yanking the Kaioshin out of the way and putting himself in his place.   
  
"What`s more important Dad? Revenge for a few hundred, a boost in your pride? Teaching Vegeta a lesson or the lives of _every_ single living being in the universe?" He asked. "Do you want to protect the Earth or do you want to unleash something so evil it`ll threaten the universe?"   
  
"It`s not my job anymore Gohan. Move," Goku replied sternly, raising his hand and powering up a blast. Light blinked at his palm and his expression faded to one that Gohan had only seen him wear once: The time he`d first gone Super Saiyan. Gohan didn`t move though, he refused to.   
  
  
"What the hell is going on down there?" Yamcha shouted. "It looks like Goku`s about to blast Gohan," Roshi stated in obvious surprise. "_What_?" Videl asked from where she was standing, holding the unconcious Bulma upright with an arm looped around her own neck. "He`s right," Juuhachigou stated, holding Marron still. In the end, it was Yamcha who gave voice to the collective feeling of the moment, almost glad that ChiChi and Goten weren`t in the area to see what was happening.   
  
"Holy crap..."   
  
  
"Move or else I`ll blast you," Goku stated. Even Vegeta was somewhat surprised. "No."   
  
"Fine."   
  
_ Well, I can't explain this little man   
Taken over, can't explain the way   
That I feel  
  
_ There was an explosion and then the sight of a charred form slamming down through the roof of the lounge area, and everyone, Vegeta included, gaped in surprise as Goku literally put down his own son. One thing people had learned over the years was simple: Son Goku _**never**_ bluffed. "I`m sorry Gohan," Goku stated with a shake of the head, turning back to Vegeta with glare. "Are we ready or did you just go through all that to try and get me to do what I just did?" He asked.   
  
Vegeta was about to respond. He probably would have taunted and he probably would have mocked Goku for what he`d just done. Instead however, his reply was interrupted most violently by the sounds of metal and concrete snapping like twigs, rumbling and then outright bursting up off of the ground in a flash as Gohan got out of the pile of debris that Goku had put him in, a little singed around the edges and extremely angry looking, but utterly unscathed besides that.   
  
Slowly, with a murderous calm, he walked towards the ring, climbing up the steps and walking past Vegeta as if he wasn`t even there. Goku almost shook in his boots as he lowered his hand, though he kept the outward facade of being unphased going as best as anyone could under the glare that Gohan was giving him. "I guess I was wrong. My father didn`t die when he fought Frieza, he didn`t die when he teleported Cell away. He died today. _You`re not him_, do what you want," Gohan stated coldly before glancing over to the Kaioshin.   
  
"Look`s like it`s up to us then."   
  
"Indeed," Shin replied gravely.   
  
_ You are the love I never had  
You are the love I never had  
  
_ "Vegeta..." Bulma groaned, slowly coming to a few moments later.   
  
  
"Now _this_ is interesting, isn`t it?" Babidee asked. Dabura grimly nodded but said nothing. "It`s like watching a house of cards fall down, so delicately, effectively put together, _annihilated by one swift swipe of the hand!" The short sorcerer chuckled before breaking into a dance from side to side. "This is the best day I`ve ever lived to see!" He broke into a cackle before finally stopping several seconds later. "You wanted to fight somewhere else? Well so be it!"   
  
_ "**_PAPARA PA PA!!!_**"   
  
  
In a flash, Goku, Gohan, Shin and Vegeta were all standing around the door back into the ship. "Good. Fight as much as you want, Gohan and I are going to go deal with Babidee and Dabura," Shin stated. "If the shock awakens Buu then oh well, there`s nothing we could do to prevent it at this point. It`s better this way than having him reach full power," he added. "With any luck we`ll be able to stop the resurrection from taking place..."   
  
  
"I don`t think so, Kaioshin," Babidee growled. "Vegeta! Stop and kill them both right now!" Babidee ordered sternly.   
  
  
Vegeta grunted loudly, bending forward and holding his head in his hands. "Gnngh... Nuh... No!" Vegeta shouted. _"Do it Vegeta, **KILL THEM!!!**"_ Babidee ordered. "I refuse!" Vegeta exclaimed, breaking loose of Babidee`s control that very instant. "I don`t care _what_ they do, so long as it doesn`t interfere with my battle with Kakarot!" He shouted. _"What?!"_ Babidee demanded. _"I`ll tell you this one more time Vegeta... Kill them. Now."_   
  
"I... I told you... I... Only wanted to fight Kakarot..." Vegeta said between strained breaths. "I am a Saiyan Prince, the last of my kind, the best to ever live!" He began, shaking the ground in his tirade. "**_AND I WON`T BE YOUR SLAVE! EVEN THOUGH YOU`VE TAKEN OVER MY BODY AND SOUL, YOU`LL NEVER HAVE..._**" He paused, taking a deep breath and then screaming the words with a defiance only the royal could possess. "**_MY PRIDE!!!_**" He screamed, shattering the ground beneath him as his aura flared up brightly, the landscape behind him crumbling to dust under the sheer weight of his words.   
  
_ Well, I can't explain this little man   
Taken over, can't explain the way   
That I feel  
  
_ "This has never happened before," Babidee growled. "He has a lot of pride," he added. "Don`t worry about it, Lord Babidee, his purpose is to steal energy, and he may as well have some fun while he`s at it. I can easily hold off the boy and the Kaioshin until they finish gathering power for Majin Buu," Dabura replied. "After all, isn`t this what you wanted?" He asked. "To see the Kaioshin die before your very eyes?"   
  
  
_"I can`t believe it... I never imagined someone possessed by Babidee would go so far against his wishes without breaking free entirely,"_ Shin thought. "You really are pathetic Vegeta," Goku stated.   
  
"They`re opening the door for us," Shin mused to himself, stepping towards it. "Have a nice fight, Kakarot," Gohan stated, refusing to call Goku by any name that suggested real familiarity. It was another way of alienating him from the older Son. In a swish, without another word, Goku and Shin vanished down the open hatch, leaving Goku and Vegeta standing alone in the field.   
  
"The door below is open," Gohan stated, landing next to the hatch. "He`s either too cocky or he`s got a trap, probably both," Shin replied. "Probably."   
  
"Or not," Dabura stated from behind the two. "Welcome to the end of your world," he greeted, cocking his head to the side as Babidee walked into view from behind the sphere containing Majin Buu. "Is that Buu`s sphere?" Gohan asked. "Yes," Shin replied. "Killer of my father, I`m glad you could make it," Babidee greeted, glaring over at Shin with a smile. "I`m here to put a stop to you, Babidee. Once and for all, Buu will _never_ be resurrected," Shin replied.   
  
"Too bad for you, I have the Demon Lord Dabura on my side," Babidee stated. "We`ll have to hurry Gohan, you fight Dabura and I`ll try to take down Babidee," Shin said with a grimace. "I can more than hold my own with Pinko here," Gohan replied, not exactly in the best mood as it was.   
  
"Let`s do it then," Shin replied, lowering himself into a fighting stance.   
  
_ Well I can't explain the way that I  
Well I can't explain the way that I feel  
  
_ And above, on a battlefield by chance, the last survivors of a race of fallen warriors stood, face to face, ready to slug it out one last time. Both were silent, for a short while. "Nothing left to lose," Vegeta stated. "Nothing left to gain," Goku replied. "That`s exactly how I wanted it," Vegeta smirked. Goku looked as though he was trying to fight back a smirk mirroring Vegeta`s own, even as the two readied to raise all manner of hell against one another.   
  
Goku let out a yell, throwing up a waist high cloud of dust billowing around himself, though none of it penetrated his aura, which suddenly brightened a bit, his eyes glimmering jade and his hair darkening just slightly to a more metallic shade of gold, elongating further, and straightening out, each strand becoming more defined, three locks dangling over his face with one to either side and the third right over the middle. Electric blue energy flared around him.   
  
"Ironic isn`t it?" Vegeta asked. "Eh?" Goku replied. "Even after all of this, we`re only a little stronger than your son," Vegeta stated. "He disowned me, he`s not my son anymore," Goku shrugged. Vegeta just blinked and shook his head. With a loud yell, he flared his aura up, pushing the dust cloud back and shaking the ground as electric red bolts of energy flared around him, his hair straightening into a trident pattern and getting a bit longer, each strand also becoming more and more visible. Veins bulged and his eyes shifted to the same jade in the eyes of his rival, bringing a grim expression to Goku`s face.   
  
"This may take a little longer than I thought."   
  
"Now you see? This is our fate, our battle! **_LET`S SETTLE IT KAKAROT!!!_**"   
  
It was the showdown of destiny once again: Son Goku against Prince Vegeta, and this time only one of them would be walking away...   
  


_ End Part Seven  
  


* * *

  
  
_

**Author`s Note:** Cliffhanger, cliffhanger, cliffhanger... I`m evil, aren`t I?  
  
On a sidenote: Thanks to Eric Ford(Enzeru of Death, Aporo Jinryoku, Suupah Oreo-Jin, etc) for helping me come up with the scene of Goku blasting Gohan about a half a year ago.  
  
Sh33p out, see ya! 


	8. Awake

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations  
**_ Awake   
  
  
  
_

On any other day, the desert would be just that; a desert. On any other day it`d be plainly empty, void of any and all inhabitation bar the occasional eccentric nutjob in need of a long vacation. On any other day, it would be silent aside from the winds and plain aside from the scorching heat. On any other day. It wasn`t any other day. Why? For the simple reason that two men - the survivors of a dead race of alien warriors - were waging a rematch that was almost eleven or twelve years in the making. Their last battle hadn`t been half as intense because they hadn`t been half as powerful, nor had they been half as dedicated to each other`s personal destruction.   
  
This time around?   
  
"**_DIE KAKAROT!!!_**"   
  
It was likely to register as one of the most intense battles in all of history. Vegeta flew forward, leaving the ground in a blast of dust and rock and lashing out solidly with a hard kick towards the side of Goku`s head, which the other Saiyan soundly blocked, though visibly strained in his efforts to do so. Vegeta whipped his entire body back, fluidly sending a punch forward at Goku, who quickly intercepted it in one hand, though it still took visible effort to do so, and almost as soon as he`d caught the punch, he threw one of his own, which Vegeta caught with about the same amount of strain as Goku had blocked his own.   
  
From there they locked up, throwing their legs at one another and intercepting each other in a mirror effect each time, gradually floating off of the ground as Goku pushed Vegeta back, but the Prince shattered the stalemate almost instantly, thrusting his forehead forward and headbutting Goku back, managing to burst Goku`s forehead open where he`d made impact, but the other wasn`t out yet. Goku dropped his body down several feet, and Vegeta blindly followed suit, only to overshoot his target. Goku stopped and swung his entire body around again, his right leg shooting out and his ankle slamming hard right into Vegeta`s cheek, rocketing the Prince towards the ground almost a quarter of a mile away with a massive explosion to follow.   
  
Goku quickly touched back down, watching and waiting while lowering himself back down into a fighting stance. _"Vegeta`s really improved over the years, could certainly give Pikkon a run for his money,"_ Goku thought, feeling for the other`s ki. Vegeta blasted right back out of the enormous dust cloud in a blaze, landing all of ten feet away from his rival, blood trickling down from the side of his mouth, which had curled up into an unlikely smirk.   
  
One shared by Goku.   
  
_ Wait another minute  
Can't you see what this pain has fucking done to me  
I'm alive and still kickin'  
What you see I can't see and  
Maybe you'll think before you speak   
  
_ "Ready to try it again, Kakarot?" Vegeta asked. "After you," Goku replied. Vegeta lunged forward, and Goku darted at him in reply, the two meeting halfway. Goku stopped first, standing on one leg and delivering an attempted kick through the air, but Vegeta ducked through it and stopped behind the larger of the two, jumping up and kneeing Goku right in the back of the skull. Goku staggered forward and then outright fell, though the sheer volume of punches coming from Vegeta was such that he never hit the ground for a second.   
  
Goku phased out, Vegeta followed suit and dozens of impact shockwaves rippled through the air for miles around a moment later, rattling the clouds in the sky and shattering the ground beneath them, before finally, after almost a hundred such shockwaves, Goku reappeared, flipping back and away with Vegeta no more than a few steps behind.   
  
"Eat this!" The Prince shouted, throwing his hands forward and firing off a beam of energy at Goku, who threw himself out of the way at the last second and landed with a skid on both legs, backflipping up over the charging Vegeta and landing behind him with both hands held at his sides. "Kame Hame Ha!" Goku shouted, throwing both hands forward in the classical stance and letting loose. Vegeta turned around and blasted upward, and Goku ended the Kame Hame Ha as soon as he`d begun it, hopping back and then flipping to bring his leg up into Vegeta`s own, pausing the two in a single moment as the Kame Hame Ha hit somewhere miles away, the same area Vegeta`s attack had landed, and detonated in a sub-nuclear level blast.   
  
"This just keeps getting better and better," Vegeta commented sourly. "Isn`t this what you wanted?" Goku asked. "Exactly."   
  
The two broke apart once again and charged each other with the intent to cause nothing short of death to one another.   
  
  
"This is starting to get really annoying," Trunks grumbled. "Yeah, I know," Goten replied. "Their powers keep bouncing around and now they`re seperated and it feels like... I dunno," he added. "Do you think those two big powers are our dads?" Trunks asked. "I don`t know," Goten answered. "Feels like they`re fighting something pretty desperately but I don`t know if they`re fighting together or against each other," he added. "Yeah, feels like your brother is beginning to power up too," Trunks replied. "Which do we go to?"   
  
"Well, our dads are fighting _something_ and it`s either each other or too mean for us to detect, and they`re probably doing okay so... Let`s go check up on your brother," Trunks answered. "Sounds like a plan to me," Goten agreed. "Then hurry up, slow poke!" Trunks shouted, blasting off over the horizon. "You`re just mad that I beat you!" Goten yelled, blasting off after him.   
  
  
_ "I really hate surprises,"_ Goku thought sourly while his chin plowed a trench through the ground. The stopping point was unexpected, a cliff, and he surprisedly grappling onto it while breathing hard. How Vegeta had improved _that_ greatly over the years was a surprise to him, especially after the hellish training Goku himself had done. "Don`t know why I`m surprised really... He _has_ been training hard over the past years," Goku though bemusedly.   
  
It was at about this point that Goku looked up and managed to make the realization that he wasn`t hanging by his own grip. Vegeta was holding his wrist tightly enough to cut off the blood flow and numb the nerves, and in pure blooded Saiyans that has a tendancy to cause them to keep transmitting their last orders. In other words, it felt like he was still gripping onto the ledge but he wasn`t. With a hardened look, the slightly bloodied looking Vegeta, lifted Goku up from his dangling position, glaring into his eyes. Even if one was a good half a foot taller than the other at least, they were seeing eye to eye this time.   
  
"What`s the matter Clown? Not winning as easily as you thought you would?" Vegeta mocked. "I didn`t ever say this would be easy," Goku replied with a huff, suddenly jerking his entire body up and lashing out with a kick. Vegeta just ducked, yanking Goku`s arm between his own legs, causing him to flip over and then throwing him hard into a nearby cliff wall. Goku had barely finished impacting when Vegeta had raised two of his fingers, firing off five perfectly formed rings of energy, which locked tight around Goku`s throat, wrists and ankles, holding him in place.   
  
Goku gagged a bit but Vegeta barely even bothered to grin. "How does it feel to be in my place Kakarot? Bound by your own foolish inhibitions while a stronger, more capable warrior pounds the life out of you without ever even touching you?" Vegeta asked. Goku just coughed in response, aiming it at Vegeta`s face. "This is fitting justice," he stated. "Because now that I`ve got you right where I want you," he began, pulling back his hand. "I`m going to chop you down, piece by bloody piece, _the same way that you chopped down my pride_!" Vegeta yelled, roughly slapping Goku across the face four times.   
  
"Tell me Kakarot, how do you think it feels to go from one of the most feared warriors in the universe, one of Frieza`s fighting elite, to just another face in a shrinking crowd of Saiyans, the only pure blood and the only one who even knows half of the customs of our planet? I was feared once, you know... The very _mention_ of my name sewed terror anywhere it was said, I was unrivaled in ferocity..."   
  
"And then I came to this sick little pit of a world. I came here and I fought, I fought a warrior like none I`d ever seen before. Whereas most, Frieza included, trembled at the thought of fighting me, you, noble Kakarot, stood against me. There wasn`t _any_ fear in your eyes, no respect, _nothing_," Vegeta continued, slapping Goku again, twice this time. "And it was _you_, noble Kakarot, who first eroded at my pride, _you_, noble Kakarot, who chipped away at the very foundations of what makes me who I am. _You_ who defeated the Ginyu Force and Frieza when I could not, _you_ who became the first in a thousand years to attain the power of a Super Saiyan when I, the Prince of _all_ Saiyans could not. _You_, noble Kakarot, who heroically died defeating Cell, and _you_, noble Kakarot, who`s lowly halfling brat of a son surpassed me again and again, just like you did," he finished, slapping Goku _again_.   
  
"And this place hasn`t exactly helped matters either. I`ve grown soft over the years - complacent, I`ve taken a wife and had a son... I`ve even found it an acceptable place to live," he spat. "So now do you see? Now do you understand why I have to have this? Do you?!" Vegeta asked, slapping Goku one more time before the other Saiyan finally gagged out a war cry and started to truly struggle against the rings binding him in place. "_I_... _Don`t_... **_GIVE A SHIT!!!_**" Goku screamed finally, ripping his neck loose of it`s bondings and giving off another screaming cry before tearing his legs free, followed by his arms, one by one breaking the bonds that Vegeta had put in place.   
  
The Prince was too stunned to react in any way but stand there and take the blows that Goku dished out on him, roughly punching him with enough force to shatter the parts of the rock that had remained bound to his wrists, the first blow causing Vegeta to stagger back, the second promptly ripping him off of the ground and sending him tumbling over the edge of the cliff, with Goku no more than a few feet behind, still screaming like a mad man.   
  
_ I'm alive for you  
I'm awake because of you  
I'm alive I told you  
I'm awake swallowing you   
  
_ "We gonna hit them or not?" Gohan asked. "Wait for it," Shin replied. "There`ll be an opening right about..." He paused, narrowing his eyes and then charging forward, only to stop at the last second and feign to the side. "_Now_!" The small god yelled, ducking under Dabura`s swift leg while Gohan rippled forward, smashing his knee into the large demon`s chin and throwing him back into the egg, only to lunge forward again and unleash a flurry of punches into Dabura`s stomach, rattling Buu`s egg in the process.   
  
Babidee and Shin on the other hand, locked grasps, auras igniting around the both of them in a clash that could be seen more than felt or heard. "It`s _over_ Babidee!" Shin yelled, pushing the sorcerer back, inch by inch. "Not on your life, Kaioshin!" Babidee spat, suddenly sparkling with crimson electricity and shocking the Kaioshin out of their grapple, right into the wall across from them. "I think I`ll change the scenery now, don`t want to awaken Buu prematurely, hmm?"   
  
"**_PAPARA PA PA!!!_**"   
  
"Not again," Gohan growled, pausing his beating of Dabura to glance over at the sorcerer, which cost him severely when Dabura slapped him across the room, though the Demon King was visibly winded as a result of his earlier beating.   
  
  
"**_AHHH!!!_**"   
  
There was a thunderous crash and Vegeta`s body slammed straight through the side of the cliff they`d been fighting atop a few minutes earlier. Both were considerably bloodied and bruised over what they`d been at the start of the battle, both wore tattered, torn clothing and both looked like they were having the fight of their lives and loving every single second of it. Goku could deny his heritage all he wanted but he, like Vegeta, possessed the Saiyan`s primal urge for battle, even if he didn`t like to fight every waking second like he did in the Otherworld.   
  
"Come on out Vegeta!" Goku demanded, floating slowly into the cavernous insides of the mountain. "I know you`re in here!" He stated obviously, glancing around with a stern look. "Behind you!" Came a shout, followed by a crack and then a burst of light, Goku only nonchalantly backhanded the blast away, sending it slamming out of the same entrance point Vegeta`s body had produced, punching out a circular hole that shone light into the darkened cavern.   
  
"Here I am!" Vegeta shouted, reappearing behind Goku and forcibly pushing him up towards the downward pointing rock spire above them both. Goku only barely managed to stop the two of them, letting out a primal howl and throwing Vegeta off, also shattering the spire above him, then turning around for a bit of deja vu.   
  
"**_KAME HAME!!!_**"   
  
Vegeta flipped several times and then took off from the ground again, powering up his own blast and throwing his hands behind him in a similar but different way to Goku.   
  
"**_GALLICK GUN!!!_**"   
  
"**_HA!!!_**" "**_FIRE!!!_**"   
  
The entire area was annihilated.   
  
_ Take another second  
Turn your back on me and  
Make believe that you're always happy   
  
_ "Holy..." Yamcha commented, glancing over to his right, followed a few seconds later by Muten and a few seconds after that by Videl. "Can you feel that?" Roshi asked. Yamcha gulped for a moment and replied with a somber nod. "Feel what?" Bulma asked. "Two... No, four... Wait, six?" Yamcha tried to reply with a guess. "Eight," Roshi corrected. "Eight powers, five of them utterly _massive_, three I recognize as Goku, Gohan and Vegeta, six are fighting and two are flying," he explained. "Yeah, that`s about right," Yamcha nodded. "What the hell are they fighting?" Bulma demanded.   
  
"Have you already forgotten what Vegeta did today? He and Goku are probably tearing each other limb from limb by now, not sure about Gohan or any of the others though," Roshi chided. "Oh... Yeah," Bulma replied with a shake of the head. "I can`t believe he did that..."   
  
"Can`t we wish them back with the Dragonballs?" Videl asked. "Yeah, we can," Yamcha replied. "But first we need to see what`s going on out there," he added. "What about ChiChi and the others?"   
  
"Juu will probably make sure they get home or something, I don`t know," Yamcha replied. "Speaking of ol` Blondie, where`d she go?" Roshi asked. "To check on everyone else," Videl replied. "Then why in the hell are we walking around the arena like this?" The old man questioned.   
  
No one replied.   
  
  
In the fires of an explosion visible from low orbit, Goku and Vegeta hovered up to face one another, both sheathed in gold, both not caring one bit about anything but finishing each other off once and for all. "Tired yet?" Goku asked. "Not a blue snowball`s chance in a hot, red Hell," Vegeta replied. The two exchanged mocking glances and then burst towards one another, phasing out the moment before any meeting could take place, only to reappear in a thunderous shockwave miles up off the ground, with Goku almost wrapped around Vegeta`s knee and Vegeta`s back arched in a fairly unhealthy sort of way to accomodate Goku`s elbow.   
  
"Ngh... Nice... One..." Goku grunted out. "Sh... Shut up Clown," Vegeta wheezed, floating to the right and away from Goku, who drifted off to the left. Both were breathing hard, both were grinning like idiots and both mirrored each others screams a second later as Goku powered up and slung himself over at Vegeta, twisting in the process to bring his legs crashing down across Vegeta`s forearms, causing the Prince to fall back, yelling all the way.   
  
Vegeta twisted hard out of the way as Goku darted down towards him, allowing the Third Class soldier to pass him by and then phase out. Vegeta followed suit, and another mile away, a cloud suddenly tore itself apart in the most violent way possible, as the two Super Saiyans beyond Super Saiyan flashed in and out of the cloud, clashing repeatedly in the process.   
  
And then finally they finished it, and Goku went soaring through the air bearing out a bruise the shape of a fist on his cheek, eventually finding waterfall in a most brutal sort of way as he hit the ground at near mach five, kicking up a huge series of waves before he slid back up out of the water, winded and dazed.   
  
"**_FINAL FLASH!!!_**"   
  
"Crap."   
  
_ It's safe to say you're never alive  
A big part of you has died and by the way  
I hope you're satisfied   
  
"He`s definately gotten better,"_ Goku thought, gazing up at the incoming sphere of golden energy intended to kill him. _"A whole lot better,"_ he added bemusedly, sticking his hands up and getting ready to try and diffuse it.   
  
_ I'm alive for you  
I'm awake because of you  
I'm alive I told you  
I'm awake swallowing you   
  
_ Three punches rang out and Dabura staggered to the right, replying in kind and kicking the now-Super Saiyan Gohan in the side, throwing him down into the dirt with a skid while Shin and Babidee continued a war of powers and wits, duelling with magic and ki, nullifying each other`s attacks everytime as a result. Magic and ki had a very unique balance you see, they were the same thing but entirely different, and regardless of strength they would often cancel each other out regardless.   
  
The key difference was that the users drew on difference things. Magic users draw on anything from nature to Gods for their powers, and Gods basically draw on whatever realms they hold power in, while ki users draw strength from themselves. This means that while a ki user may eventually exhaust themselves after a time, a magic user can keep going regardless if their connection with whatever higher authority they draw power from allows for it.   
  
There are a few exceptions though, the Spirit Bomb for instance is a form of combined magics with ki, and Nameks are basically born with both abilities(healers are especially proficient with magics, though Dende had yet to discover the kind of damage he could do given he was both a Namek healer and a planetary god at the same time), and there are those who practice one to fuel the other, but generally mixing ki and magic is a no-no unless you want them to cancel each other out entirely.   
  
This is what was happening at present between Babidee and Shin. Shin knew magics, yes, he was actually pretty good by most standards with what he knew, but Kaioshin magics are different, they`re not a combat art like most magics are. Shin`s magics also required that if he use them for battle, he draw power off of the Dai Kaioshin. Key problem with that was that the Dai Kaioshin was going to be dead for another few hundreds of millions of years before the Time Loop effect brought him back to life or created a successor for him. Babidee`s magics drew off of one of the two simplest power sources imaginable: Evil.   
  
He didn`t get exhausted at all unless it was with the sort of spells that could imprison Buu. Shin had to rely on ki to battle him. What it came down to was that Shin was effectively fighting Babidee on borrowed time and they both happened to know this fact, which meant that while Babidee was laughing his head off and nullifying every attack that Shin made, the Kaioshin was getting a bit weaker each time.   
  
"Damn it," Shin growled, dodging aside as Babidee ripped up a clump of dirt and turned it into a ball of lava after throwing it at him. It impacted the ground a few feet behind him and blew up with the force of a good ton or two of directed dynamite, the explosion twisting to come right after the Kaioshin in the form of a demonic dragon`s head made entirely of flame.   
  
"You`re going to die here, Kaioshin," Babidee stated in a threateningly dull voice. Shin only responded by bursting up off of the ground and looping back down, the dragon tearing up after him only to meet an errant blast from Gohan or Dabura, annihilating it in a chain of loose smoke and ash.   
  
Shin howled and dashed downward, stabbing his leg downward towards Babidee only to rebound off of a Black Magic Barrier, which shocked his very senses to touch.   
  
"Don`t you just love an unfair playing field?" Babidee asked with visible amusement. "I know I do."   
  
"**_MASENKO-HA!!!_**" "**_HONOO NO TAMA!!!_**"   
  
An explosion sounded violently in the distance, rattling the ground that Babidee and Shin stood on, briefly shaking the egg on it`s holding mechanism. Dust and smoke flowed in and Babidee smirked. Shin only grimaced.   
  
"This battle is far from over, Wizard," he stated, powering up. "All the more reason it will be such a joy when I or Majin Buu kill you," Babidee replied, black fire rushing up all around him.   
  
  
Vegeta dove forward, lashing out twice and then recoiling back, missing each of his attacks on Goku, who only tilted out of the way each time. With a loud kiai of a yell to set a distraction, Vegeta dove forward again, headbutting Goku off of his feet and right into a nearby pile of debris, which Vegeta promptly fried with a high powered beam of energy, turning to his left an instant later and doing it again, this time with one hand. Goku blurred out just in time to reappear with his arms crossed over his chest and a smug smirk decorating his dirtied, bruised and bloody face.   
  
"You`ve learned some new tricks Vegeta. But then again, so have I," Goku stated. "Tricks won`t save you from my wrath, Hellspawn," Vegeta retorted. "Sticks and stones, Vegeta," Goku replied. "Good idea," Vegeta shot back, using his ki to rip the ground around his feet right up in the form of jagged looking projectiles, each aimed at Goku. "You`ll have to pardon the lack of sticks though."   
  
_ "Me and my big mouth..."   
  
  
_ "This is nuts," Goten muttered, glancing over to Trunks. "Yeah, it feels like all Hell`s breaking loose over that way, but it feels even _worse_ where our dads are fighting," Trunks agreed. "Should we go to help our dads or continue to go for whatever`s over that way?" Goten asked uncertainly. Trunks hated being the leader but he just gave a nod. "Let`s continue this way, I`m sure my dad can handle whatever get`s thrown at him, and your`s probably isn`t that much worse," Trunks answered finally.   
  
"Then uh... Mind if I use the bathroom?" Goten asked. Trunks face faulted.   
  
  
"Erio bregeduur uuan!" Babidee shouted, throwing his hands to the sky and then slapping them back to the ground. Shin grimaced as the ground before the short wizard began to harshly rumble and shake, gradually rising before a pillar of about the same height as Dabura stood. Moments further passed as the pillar began to take on an ethereal black glow, suddenly bursting into flames and spreading itself out in a humanoid form. "Fire golem," Babidee stated. "How do ya like them apples?" He asked.   
  
Shin shook his head briefly and raised his hands up with a feral glow to his eyes, taking aim at the roaring beast, which charged towards him a second later. Babidee watched curiously in this process, exercising great control over the low level monstrosity he had created. "Just fine," he growled.   
  
"What the hell was that?" Gohan asked, pausing his battle with Dabura and glancing off to the side curiously at the massive pillar of smoke where Babidee and Shin had been doing battle. "Just a precursor to _**THE END!**_" Dabura howled, throwing a powerful ki blast towards Gohan, who blurred out of the way and reappeared behind Dabura with his leg already crashing down into the Demon King`s neck. "Not likely Pinko!" He shouted, right as Dabura`s blast hit ground and detonated in front of them.   
  
_ "Got to end this fast before Buu get`s the chance to wake up,"_ Gohan thought, powering himself up and taking a deep breath. _"No point in getting angry, don`t have enough time to waste doing that,"_ he thought again. "So I`ll just go cold turkey as usual," he mused to himself aloud, his hair rigidly beginning to straighten up and lengthen. Dabura climbed out of the pit of his own explosion and growled, glancing over at the duel of magics taking place a few hundred feet away between Babidee and the Kaioshin, who seemed to be matching each other move for move in favor of Babidee.   
  
_ "Damn,"_ Dabura thought, not bothering to wait for Gohan to finish transforming. If he was right, the now jade eyed youth he`d been fighting was about to royally cut loose in an attempt to stop Buu`s resurrection. He could smack the brat around when he wasn`t in his second transformation but after that? Dabura didn`t stand a chance.   
  
He knew that. He also knew that the kid`s abilities at causing mass destruction would put Babidee in danger. He couldn`t afford that, not now. Shin felt himself blindsided by a rough kick into the cheek, leaving him breathless and dazed, and before Babidee could react, Dabura grabbed him up and took off to the skies, ignoring Babidee`s orders of protest to his rash behavior.   
  
"**_KAME HAME HA!!!_**"   
  
With very good reason.   
  
_ Tearing it back unveiling me   
  
_ The ball rocked to and fro massively as Gohan`s heavenly blue-gold beam slammed into it, the power to tear apart worlds focusing intensely onto the ancient seal. Shin glanced up from what he was doing, dazedly watching smoke pour out from the base of the ball. He grimaced deeply, wincing his eyes shut and laying his forehead on the ground. It was enough to make him cry if he wasn`t any more shocked than he already was.   
  
_ Taking a step back so I can breathe   
  
_ "It`s too late..."   
  
_ Hear the silence about to break   
  
_ "We`re all going to die," he affirmed to himself bitterly, slapping his forehead into the ground repeatedly. "**_WE`RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!_**" He screamed to himself, even as Gohan`s Kame Hame Ha began to really push the ball off of it`s mount. Babidee glanced down with an unearthly smile, suddenly breaking into laughter even though everything seemed as though it was all about to come crashing down.   
  
_ "What the heck is he screaming about?!"_ Gohan asked himself. Babidee made the answer all too clear moments later.   
  
_ Fear resistance when I'm awake   
  
_ "**_MAJIN BUU IS AT FULL POWER!!!_**"   
  
In truth, it really _was_ all about to come crashing down.   
  


_ End Part Eight  
  
_

* * *

  
  
**Author`s Note:** So many cliffhangers, so little time...  
  
Hope you enjoyed,leave a review and see ya next time!  
  
Sh33p out.  
  



	9. Wait and Bleed

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations  
**_ Wait and Bleed_  
  
  
  


Gohan strained, pouring more and more energy into his attack. Majin Buu`s egg twitched a few times in response to all of the power being forcibly thrown at it, and the device beneath it finally just gave way, tearing apart and vaporizing, leaving the egg to hover briefly in the air even against the massive force exerted upon it, only to tear loose from it`s brief hovering point and fly away, slamming with a roll into the ground as Gohan slowed out of his attack, touching down to the ground and watching his energy flow all around the egg before detonating in an explosion of such power that the combatants on both sides were only safe from the blast by the sheer luck that it had detonated straight up under Gohan`s strict control, only to fold back in on itself and implode before detonating outward in a shockwave of heated dust and air so intense that it turned to glass before it even got more than a few dozen feet from the egg`s location.   
  
_ "Hope that worked,"_ Gohan thought with a wheeze, standing up straight. "And we were worried about breaking him loose prematurely," he growled sourly, believing that Vegeta would`ve been fine to blow the ship to kingdom come and back. At least a few tens of hundreds of people would still be alive and Zangya, Krillin and Piccolo would`ve been restored if he had. At the corner of his mostly covered, half-shut eyes, Gohan could see the vaguely opaque forms of Dabura, Babidee and Shin, but he paid the two villains no real mind, focusing only on the Kaioshin.   
  
"**_THINK THAT DID IT?!_**" Gohan screamed over the explosion. He couldn`t really see Shin`s movements, but what he heard proved to be quite unsettling. "**_NO!_**"   
  
_ "Crap,"_ Gohan thought, looking back into his forearm and closing his eyes, waiting for the chaos after his attack to end.   
  
_ I've felt the hate rise up in me...   
Kneel down and clear the stone of leaves...   
I wander over where you can't see...   
Inside my shell, I wait and bleed...   
  
_ Vegeta and Goku continued raging through the desert, plowing through hill after giant rock after spire after mountain, one after another in a destructive, lethal tango that knew no ends. Even as a sonic shockwave echoed through the lands, neither bothered to stop, both of them literally shutting things out to continue fighting at their limits.   
  
Goku blocked, Vegeta withdrew his arm and spun around, powering up an attack in one hand almost instantly before straightening his arm out and following suit with his hand.   
  
"**_GOOD BYE!!!_**"   
  
Goku phased out of the way reflexively, and the Big Bang Attack streaked through where he`d been standing, flinging itself into a rock pile somewhere in the five mile long trail of destruction the two had carved out in their battle, then detonated in a sub-atomic blast that paled in size to the explosion out in the distance. A second shockwave tore through the air and the ground alike, and Vegeta only barely trembled, mainly since the ground beneath his feet sank by three inches and glass particles burned out of hardened dust and dirt pounded into him like a wall of miniature knives. It was little more than an annoyance though, a flaring of his electricity surrounded aura solved it instantly, but Goku`s visible location was obscured now.   
  
"Behind you!" Goku announced, appearing to the left of Vegeta while he turned around right to face the explosion. Goku had always known he had the key element of surprise to his advantage when it came to announcing moves, no one ever expected someone who barely knew how to competently read, write and do high school level math without needing help to be ruthless enough to resort to trickery at times. The key was not doing it often in a blatant way.   
  
It worked though, Vegeta was just off gaurd enough that he didn`t manage to block Goku`s punch, which staggered him to the side and was promptly followed by a swift, brutal kick to the back of the head. Vegeta gagged as his aura fell out, that was another advantage Goku had. Having not learned how to use auras effectively until he was in his mid-twenties, Goku never truly counted on them as much as warriors like Vegeta did, he`d built up a near unique tolerance to things like dust, glassed clouds and sand storms, shared only by Krillin, Yamcha, Piccolo, Tien and the cyborgs. Chaozu had never perfected the talent since he was a telekinetic and could just will things like that away from himself if he felt like it.   
  
Goku touched down and Vegeta growled, re-igniting his aura once again in annoyance and feeling for his foe`s ki, getting right back up again and gazing through his limited area of visibility for Goku. "Behind you!" Goku shouted again. Vegeta threw twin blasts to his sides, expecting Goku to feign his way out of things again, but the other Saiyan actually _did_ appear behind Vegeta this time, wrapping his arms around Vegeta`s neck and then slamming his hip into the small of the Prince`s back, following the fluid motion of the moment and pile driving Vegeta`s face right into the ground, kicking up a miniature impact crater as a result.   
  
Vegeta`s aura went out again, only for a moment though, and then he got back up, able to see Kakarot`s outline for once. "Damn you..." He growled. "I`ve been damned enough, thank you," Goku retorted sharply, somewhat annoyed that so many people had tried damning him over the years.   
  
And then both Saiyans were rattled senseless by the third shockwave, this one vaporizing even the glassed dust and dirt that had been jabbing at them over the past minute. Goku threw an aura up as well this time, shielding his eyes in the same way as Vegeta, both of them finally flying off of their feet and having to fly up and out of the fires of the blast.   
  
"**_WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OVER THERE?!_**" Vegeta screamed in angered annoyance. "Good question," Goku replied, watching the explosion form a fourth shockwave. "It looks like Gohan`s gone on the war path!" Goku announced. "Oh fucking well!" Vegeta replied, throwing a series of ki blasts at Goku a moment later. The younger warrior grimaced and braced to take the blasts apart, chopping each one in half with his hands, the explosions rapidly filling out the air around him one by one.   
  
_ I wipe it off on tile, the light is brighter this time   
Everything is 3D blasphemy   
My eyes are red and gold, the hair is standing straight up   
This is not the way I pictured me   
  
_ As the last wave of the explosion passed him by, Gohan worriedly glanced over his shoulder at the mountain he knew Zangya, Piccolo and Krillin were all effectively trapped on until someone killed Dabura. He could vaguely see three grey spots, all of them mostly hidden by the battered from side of the mountain. Looking back at where Buu`s egg had been, Gohan saw his attack had been successful in not destroying the planet, instead glassing over an area of several hundred feet in diameter after punching the ground down by almost twenty or thirty feet.   
  
"Guess I`m getting better at focused explosions," he mused, almost bitterly. "Think that got `im?!" Gohan yelled over to Shin, who dusted himself off in the way of a man who was about to die and wanted to at least leave behind a decently clean body to be buried. "No," Shin muttered, too low for even Gohan`s sharp hearing to detect.   
  
Gohan grimaced and lifted off, touching back down a few seconds later next to Shin. "Did I get him or not?" He asked clearly. "No," Shin answered just as clearly in reply. "You`re kidding me, right?" Gohan asked, recieving a well earned glare from Shin in reply. "Holy shit," Babidee yelped, settling himself back down onto the ground in front of a very dirtied looking Dabura. "That little rat could`ve just taken out the planet!" Babidee exclaimed in surprise. "Now you understand why he defeated me," Dabura stated in reply.   
  
"Is Buu`s egg intact? I can`t see from here," Babidee stated. "It looks that way," Dabura replied, surprised himself.   
  
"I guess it got harder over the centuries," Babidee said to himself as an after thought, right as a disgusting cracking sound came from the center of the massive crater. On cue, the huge egg rattled briefly, then rose up off of the ground before falling in half, both halves slapping into the ground in a pair of loud, dull thuds.   
  
"What the?" Shin asked. "I think you actually killed him," he muttered in absolute disbelief. "**_YOU ACTUALLY KILLED MAJIN BUU!_**" He screamed in joy, resisting the urge to break into a dance of some sort.   
  
"No," Gohan replied somberly, watching the small pinkish cloud rise up out of the smoking egg. "I didn`t."   
  
  
"Sweet mother of Dende, what in the hell was that?!" Bulma demanded hotly as she and the others collected themselves out in the parking lot of the Tenkaichi arena. Most of the group, a now awakened ChiChi included, had trouble even standing and the seas around the island looked as if a hurricane was going on. There was a loud roar of wind and then...   
  
Silence.   
  
"Sounds like something just hit the fan," Juu commented, editing her language since she was in front of Marron, who had fallen down as well during the shockwaves. "Agreed," Roshi stated, having been one of the only five people who _hadn`t_ fallen on his ass as a result of the blast. The others were Juuhachi, Videl, Yamcha and the Ox King. ChiChi had been sitting so she wasn`t that faltered by things either. "What if... What if Goku and Gohan and Goten are getting killed?" She fretted. Bulma grimaced. "I doubt that`s the case," Yamcha replied. "I can still feel all three of them, and Trunks and Vegeta, someone else too," he added. "Goku and Vegeta have really been pounding the snot out of each other," Roshi mused.   
  
Ox King grimaced. That was three quarters of his remaining family that Roshi and Yamcha were talking about. "What about Goten and Gohan?" The older fellow asked. "And Trunks and Vegeta?" Doctor Briefs added, apparently the only one with the presence of mind to do so. "Trunks and Goten are both just fine, powered up but probably just trying to get to one of the two battles. Vegeta`s pretty worn down and Gohan feels like he just used a whole lot o` power," Roshi explained. "Think it was Gohan who caused that just now?" Videl asked.   
  
"I know it was. He was either desperate or damned confident and knowin` that kid it ain`t the latter," Roshi replied.   
  
Silence again fell over the group, interrupted solely by ChiChi`s frantic mumbling.   
  
_ I can't control my shakes   
How the hell did I get here?   
Something about this, so very wrong...   
  
_ "This... Is not good," Gohan commented as the pinkish cloud hovering above them all finally began to do something other than grow. It was like staring up into cotton candy with a sentient ki that felt wrong in the extreme. Shin simply glared at Babidee with every ounce of hatred that the small god could possibly muster. "Welcome to the end of your life, Gohan," Shin stated resolutely, finally glancing up at the huge pink cloud, which was now beginning to spin and shrink at a slow rate, a bit faster with each turn it made.   
  
"The end of _all_ life for that matter," he added. Gohan glanced down at him and then back up at the cloud, quietly scratching his wrists.   
  
_ I have to laugh out loud, I wish I didn't like this   
Is it a dream or a memory?   
  
_ Harder and harder, Goku and Vegeta dueled, finally coming to a head as Goku backflipped his way over a bolt of energy and landed on one hand and both feet, legs bent, body curled. Vegeta charged at him, Goku sprang up and flipped to the side, Vegeta paused, kicking out a foot-sized trench in the ground before spinning out and landing on his feet. Both were breathing hard, both were bloodied, both were dirtied and both were only just getting warmed up.   
  
"Tell me Kakarot, have you not longed for this as I have?" Vegeta asked, wiping his mouth off and then wiping his gloved hand on his hip. Goku shook his head. "Yeah, but I think we have other things to be concerned with," he stated. "Majin Buu? Big deal, the brats can handle that one," Vegeta replied. "I don`t think so Vegeta," Goku replied uncertainly, straightening up. Vegeta snorted.   
  
"You`re just afraid that you know I`m going to beat you!" He yelled. Goku only glanced at him in an unbelieving factor. "Admit it Kakarot! _**ADMIT IT!!!**_" Vegeta demanded. "If Majin Buu get`s past Gohan, he`ll kill everyone, _including_ Bulma and Trunks," Goku replied. Vegeta twitched and then screamed, charging forward and catching Goku off gaurd with a knee into the stomach.   
  
"**_SHUT UP!!!_**" He screamed, punching Goku twice in the face and then kicking him in the gut, throwing Goku back with each blow. "**_JUST SHUT UP! I`VE SOLD MY SOUL TO BABIDEE, I`M A SAIYAN WARRIOR ONCE AGAIN! NO LONGER HELD DOWN BY PETTY WEAKNESSES AND FOOLISH EMOTIONS LIKE YOU!!!_**" Vegeta accused, throwing a punch or a kick with each blow, which Goku just barely dodged away from each time, finally catching Vegeta`s right hand in his left, growling out a response.   
  
"**_LIAR!!!_**" He accused finally, catching Vegeta off gaurd both with his word of choice and how he yanked the Prince forward rather than sought to push him back. "**_I DON`T BUY IT!!!_**" He added after another second, soundly punching Vegeta across the cheek hard enough to draw blood and throw the Prince to his back on the ground. "Talk all you want Vegeta, but you`d better convince yourself of it first," he growled.   
  
Vegeta remained on the ground for a short period of seconds, then hauled himself back up with a feral snort. "Like _you`re_ much better?" He asked. "I`ve done a lot of things in anger, some that I regret, but I haven`t thrown my life away because of a pathetic insult to honor that I don`t care about," Goku replied. Vegeta stood silence for several seconds, then spat out a clot of blood to the ground, wiping his mouth off a moment later. "Fine," he finally stated. "What will it take to make you focus on the fight more?" The Prince asked.   
  
"Let`s deal with Buu first, we started it and we should be the ones to finish it, not Gohan, not anyone else," Goku affirmed. "Get out your Senzu beans then, we`ll need to be at full power when we face him," Vegeta replied. Goku smirked, turning around and glancing over his shoulder at the Senzu pouch, quietly pulling it from the back of his pants and undoing it from his belt.   
  
He never saw Vegeta`s fists coming. Goku fell to his knees, fading out of the second level, then right out of Super Saiyan and finally falling face first into the dirt, while Vegeta walked around him, not giving things much of a second thought other than a few brief words. "So Kakarot, even you can be taken with ease when your gaurd`s down," he stated, bending down and grabbing the one spilled Senzu bean from the ground, standing back up straight and tossing it into his mouth.   
  
Several crunches later, Vegeta let out a rising yell as the cratered ground beneath his feet rattled briefly, an aura pulsing back to life around him, electric blue surging around golden fire in the process.   
  
_ "And now to see if Kakarot`s oldest brat can do it himself,"_ Vegeta thought, allowing his pride to fight alone to keep him from joining the battle.   
  
_ I've felt the hate rise up in me...   
Kneel down and clear the stone of leaves...   
I wander over where you can't see...   
Inside my shell, I wait and bleed...   
  
_ This... Was not what Dabura had expected. Or Gohan for that matter. This was downright stupid to both of them. This was not the Majin Buu either had been expecting. This was not the genocidal monstrosity with no fear, no good, absolute death written on it`s forehead and a willingness to kill anything that breathed in it`s eyes. This was not the ten foot tall, cold, ruthless killer they`d all been promised would bring about a new era of absolute death and destruction.   
  
This was a seven and a half foot tall pink blob of crap with a big happy grin and eyes that were squinched shut in a permanent expression of amusement. This was a fat glob of cotton candy with a tail on it`s forehead and a pair of baggy white pants with a large, weird looking vest on. And a cape that looked exactly like a bed sheet. A _purple_ bed sheet. Tied around his neck in a big fluffy knot.   
  
"Is that... Majin Buu?" Gohan asked. Shin snorted. "That`s Buu alright, I can never forget that vile creature`s hideous appearance," the small god replied. "Are you sure? He may have weakened over the years," Gohan replied. "No, _that_ creature is Majin Buu," Shin replied. "With any luck, Babidee`s going to eventually lose control and have to seal him up again, then he and Dabura will be vulnerable again and someone can stop them. Unfortunately, it doesn`t look like you or I will be the ones to do it, as we`ll likely be the first ones to perish against Majin Buu..."   
  
"Eh..." Gohan replied. "I`m sorry Gohan, if only I`d known there were individuals who`s strength not only held just the potential, but the actual _power_ to far surpass my own, then... Then other techniques might have worked, but as it stands..." He shook his head. "No. We`re both going to be the first to die," he added. "Are you a telepath?" Gohan asked. "I can talk in people`s mind`s. If that`s what you mean, yes," Shin replied. "There any way I can use you to talk to others?" Gohan asked again. "Yes but we don`t really have time now, I`m not that good at it so it take`s me a while to get ready," Shin answered.   
  
_ "So much for telling Videl, Mom, Goten and Dende good-bye,"_ Gohan mused bitterly. _"Well, Dende will probably hear me but no one else will,"_ he added, only slightly correct. Both bemusedly looked on in near silence, barred only by Shin`s angry noises and the sounds of Majin Buu bouncing around in childlike glee, almost giving Babidee a heart attack when the sorcerer tried to force his control on him.   
  
"Listen to me now Buu, I`m well versed in _all_ my father`s incantations," Babidee growled. "I can easily put you back into that ball if you like," he added. Buu seemed to blink a few times as the realization dawned on him, and finally bowed repeatedly. "You the master, you!" He stated proudly. "Yes, that will do quite nicely," Babidee replied. "Now, go kill those two over there!" He ordered, pointing at Gohan and Shin. "And be quick about it!" He added. Buu blinked a few times and shrugged, continuing to bounce around.   
  
"A pity. It seems that for all his vaunted abilities, Majin Buu is nothing more than a wasted joke," Dabura growled. Babidee groaned and Buu glanced over to the Demon King with a content little grin, pausing in his efforts to play around. "Whats the matter Buu, did I insult you? Why don`t you run along now, or shall I turn you into stone?" Dabura asked, confident in his abilities.   
  
Buu only smiled.   
  
"**_HOLY CRAP!!!_**" Gohan yelped, ducking to avoid the bloodied form of Dabura, which bounced right off of the ground less than three yards behind him and then went skidding straight into the side of one of the only remaining mountains, shattering it into collapsing around him. "He just wiped out Dabura like it was nothing! It was like he tapped into a well of power that just doesn`t end!" Gohan shouted in awe. True, he could take care of a fighter like Dabura very easily if he wanted, but to do so like it was absolutely _nothing_? That was impressive.   
  
Hell, it was downright horrifying.   
  
"Did you _see_ the way he _**bounced**_?!" Babidee shouted in glee, utterly unphased that his second in command had just been outright annihilated in two swift blows. A gouge to the eyes and then a single backhand across the face. Dabura literally never saw it coming. "Good, good, good!" Babidee danced. "Now, **_KILL THEM ALREADY!_**" He ordered, pointing over at Gohan and Shin. "It will be just as fun as killing Dabura was!" He added. Buu suddenly twitched a few times and puffed his chest up in enthusiasm, turning to face the two of them with a little grin.   
  
"Maybe if we killed Babidee, then Buu wouldn`t be so destructive..." Gohan thought as a last ditch, lowering himself down inch by inch. "Wouldn`t work, for all his childlike innocence, Buu still has a deep seeded need for destruction," Shin answered. "Then we`ll run," Gohan replied, grabbing Shin`s shoulder and rocketing right up off of the ground and into the air, leaving behind a golden vapor trail in his wake.   
  
Buu paused, watching the two leave. "Well?!" Babidee demanded. "I go," Buu replied, setting himself up as if he was about to run after them. One sonic boom later, Babidee scraped himself off of the ground, dazedly shaking his head and taking his cloak from around his face. "I hope he comes back..." He thought bemusedly.   
  
"I`m pretty confident about my speed, there`s a chance we can out run him but I`m not very sure," Gohan stated, dragging along a resigned Kaioshin in his left hand, only to stop at an instant as Majin Buu appeared in front of him. "How the hell?!" Gohan shouted out, letting go of Shin and throwing his arms up on instinct. Buu`s fist ground sharply against Gohan`s forearms, but the demi-Saiyan didn`t yeild easily, slinging Buu`s arm away and throwing out a hand before letting off a loud kiai, throwing Buu back several feet. "Run, I`ll cover for you!" Gohan exclaimed to Shin, who just shook his head.   
  
"You don`t understand," the small god mumbled. "None of you do."   
  
Gohan was about to ask what Shin meant when a childlike laughter filled the air, and Buu tilted upright, a singular massive dent in his obesely formed belly. "My turn!" He shouted, puffing his gut back out, much to Gohan`s amazement. Neither Gohan, nor Shin, really had much time to react when Buu did the unexpected, lashing out not with it`s hands or feet like a conventional foe, but lashing the tail on it`s forehead into Gohan`s chest like a whip three times, then slashing him across the cheek and finally backhanding him across the back of the head. Gohan went screaming towards the ground, landing with an enormous explosion of dust and debris, followed seconds later by an even larger explosion of dust and debris, following a blast of golden light, as he made his way right back out.   
  
Gohan halted directly in front of Majin Buu, roughly throwing out his arm and punching the creature`s face in, withdrawing and drifting back. He was bleeding badly from the cheek and the three gashes on his chest, and he was fairly dirtied and bruised from his getting acquainted with the ground, but he wasn`t about to just lie down and play dead.   
  
Buu puffed it`s face back out and gingerly laughed, utterly unharmed. "What in the hell is this thing?" Gohan asked in shock. "Pop!" Buu shouted, causing the very air around Gohan to explode in pinkish flames, which the youth flew out of, his aura still intact. Buu merrily followed him through, literally slipping past Gohan`s defenses and pummeling him repeatedly with fists clad in festive yellow boxing gloves. Every punch brought a different scream, every scream rattled Shin to the core and after only a moment, Gohan was sent flying straight back into the very dust cloud he`d previously flown out of, even more bruised and bloodied than when he`d gone in the first time.   
  
"Your turn!" Buu shouted merrily to the Kaioshin, who grit his teeth and tightened his fists. _"If a mere mortal can go out with as much dignity to fight as that, so can a Kaioshin,"_ he thought bitterly, readying himself.   
  
_ Get outta my head cuz I don't need this   
Why I didn't I see this?   
I'm a victim - Manchurian candidate   
I have sinned by just   
Makin' my mind up and takin' your breath away   
  
_ "Come and get me then," Shin ordered, throwing his hands forward and letting out a thunderous shout as power built up in between his hands and shot out in the form of a massive beam, trying to at least hurt Buu a little bit before the end came. For all of his effort, and he put a lot into it, Shin only managed to push Buu back a full foot of space before the creature smacked the attack away, sending it careening out into space like nothing. "Crap."   
  
"**_ALGHK!!!_**" Shin gagged as Buu slammed both fists into his face, sandwhiching it most violently. The Kaioshin twitched his eyes open after a few moments, glaring hatefully up at Buu as blood trickled from his cheeks mouth. "Wheee!" Buu shouted, smashing his left fist down across the top of Shin`s head and throwing him towards the ground, which Shin landed on in the same violent manner as Buu had sandwhiched his face.   
  
Shin lay in the cracked, broken rock for several seconds and then pried himself back up, dazedly standing with a dozen major injuries visible on his small frame. Buu landed with a crash on the rock in front of him, still grinning cryptically. _"Not like I have anything left to lose at this point,"_ Shin thought, his eyes suddenly taking on an ethereal glow. Buu stopped entirely as ripples ran through his pinkish flesh , rocking it back as if it was playing limbo.   
  
And then it righted itself and smiled, opening it`s eyes as a similar glow surrounded those beady little pupils. "Damn," Shin growled before suddenly screaming his lungs out. He didn`t even know what Buu was doing, his mind was too clouded in agony to even bother thinking it through, but it hurt **_badly_**. Shin flew back, not under his own power, and continued flying, going some seven hundred feet along the way before skidding to a halt in front of Babidee, face first in the dirt, bleeding still and not looking long for the world.   
  
"I like this," Babidee snickered, just as Buu came flipping through the air, crashing his immeasurable weight down across the Kaioshin`s back, eliciting only a scream so loud it was sure to blow out Shin`s vocal cords if he had continued for very long before Babidee kicked him in the jaw and shut him up. "Take that, Kaioshin!" Babidee spat in contempt, literally. Shin groaned and slapped his face into the dirt, unable to even feel anything beneath his ribcage, and certain that he was probably better off because of it.   
  
_ I've felt the hate rise up in me  
Kneel down and clear the stone of leaves   
I wander over where you can't see  
Inside my shell, I wait and bleed  
  
_ "I know, I`ll kill you myself!" Babidee exclaimed, reaching towards the back of Shin`s neck with the intent to pull him up and strangle him with his bare hands. It was such an easy thing to do, now that Shin had been reduced to someone who was dying as it was.   
  
And then a boot sheathed in golden fire wrapped with sparks of electricity slammed into Buu`s cheek, followed by a second such boot, then a small golden blast of energy before the douji clad youth flipped sideways to the ground, shifting his eyes to glare at Babidee, who winced briefly and then jumped back. "**_BARRIER!_**" Babidee screamed frantically, though Gohan barely seemed to pay any attention to him, glancing briefly to the downed Kaioshin and then back over at Buu.   
  
_ "Man, what`s with that thing?"_ Gohan stressed at the visual of Buu walking out of the smoke cloud from the blast that Gohan had thrown, unharmed, not even showing the former dents in his cheek and chin. "You bother me, go away," Buu ordered, holding it`s hands in front of itself. Gohan grimaced and jumped forward, hand held at the ready. He was about to dodge to the side, frontal assaults on stronger opponents weren`t the smartest move to make, but he never got the chance.   
  
Buu was just too fast. Gohan screamed, being dragged off over the horizon by a gigantic ball of ki, bright as the sun and twice as intense. "Look at him go! My word Buu, you`re amazing!" Babidee commended. Shin lifted his head up slowly, gazing off at the ball of energy and using the last of his own power to take control and detonate it. Gohan didn`t even scream this time, but Shin could vaguely see him tumbling to the ground from a half of a mile up, vanishing into the trees in the distance.   
  
_ "Don`t... Die... Yet..."_ Shin ordered in thought, exhaustedly flopping to the ground and waiting for the end. "You didn`t do anything, did you Kaioshin?" Babidee asked, snorting. The sorcerer shrugged and glanced over to Buu. "Alright Buu, that`s enough. Kill the Kaioshin already," he ordered plainly. "I`m hungry," Buu replied. "I`ll eat him instead," he calmly stated. "Huh?" Babidee asked.   
  
And then a spear stabbed through Buu`s body from behind. "**_WHAT THE HELL?!_**" Babidee asked, eyes bugging out at the sight before him.   
  
  
"The eldest son of Kakarot is dead. I`m sorry Gohan," Vegeta said with a shake of the head. "That makes it three debts I have to repay you," he muttered. "Starting _now_..."   
  
With those words, Vegeta raised his hand towards the seal in the ground, forming a plan fairly quickly. _"If I break the seal, I`ll be back in the ship. If I blow up the ship, I`ll be closer to Majin Buu,"_ he thought, powering up a low energy blast into his hand. "We`ll just have to finish this later, Kakarot," he spoke, glancing with a smirk at the downed Saiyan to his right. "Assuming we`re both still alive, that is."   
  
_ I've felt the hate rise up in me  
Kneel down and clear the stone of leaves  
I wander over where you can't see  
Inside my shell, I wait and bleed  
  
_ "Master Babidee," Dabura exhaustedly called out. "Join me, help me _destroy_ Buu before he breaks loose of your control, he can never be one of your true followers, he`ll simply turn against you when the time is right... Do the right thing for once in your life, _kill Majin Buu_!" Dabura said between exhausted breaths, limping towards the pair with a grimace set in his face. "Please Master," he begged. Babidee twitched. "Dabura, Dabura, Dabura, **_DABURA! ARE YOU CRAZY?!_**" Babidee demanded, flailing around as he did so.   
  
  
Goten and Trunks touched down softly on the hard rock, powering back down out of Super Saiyan as they did so. "I can`t feel Gohan or my dad," Goten mumbled. "What`s going on down there anyways?" Trunks asked, ignoring Goten`s comment for the duration. "Looks like someone just beat up," Goten answered. "Looks like that Shin guy from the tournament," he added. "Yeah," Trunks nodded. "Not sure who those other two are but I think that really big guy in the white cape is Dabura," he replied. "Looks like it. Not sure who or what the other two are though," Goten said uneasily.   
  
"That`s odd," Goten commented, glancing to the side. "What?" Trunks asked, still watching the broken battlefield below. "There are statues of Krillin and Zangya over there," Goten answered, pointing at the two statues, which were frozen in surprise. "And another of Piccolo over there," Trunks replied. "I`m gonna check it out, come on," Trunks stated, effectively dragging Goten along towards the Piccolo statue. "Wow, this is pretty good craftsmanship," Trunks mumbled to himself, knocking on the statue of Piccolo a few times.   
  
"I don`t think we should touch it," Goten commented. "Any of them," he added. "Ah, what`s the worst that could happen?" Trunks replied, lazily slapping the statue on the back. "It`s not like they`ll..." He was paused in mid-sentence as the statue tipped over and shattered, hollow. "Tip over or anything... _Okay_, where were we again?" He asked, calmly ignoring what he`d just done. Goten shook his head and jumped back off of the ledge, kneeling back down where they`d been earlier. "Looks like they`re arguing about something," Goten stated.   
  
"Yeah," Trunks replied.   
  
  
"Look what you`ve done you idiot! That`s my life`s work! My father`s life`s work **_AND_** my own! What the hell is wrong with you?!" Babidee ranted. "Have it your way then," Dabura growled, powering up a low level ki blast in one hand and looking over at Buu, who was still staring at the spear in his gut. Calmly, the creature reached down and snapped it in half, drawing both pieces out and tossing them aside as the wound, along with the cut in his cape, slid shut as if never having existed at all.   
  
"What?!" Dabura growled. "I`m gonna eat you instead!" Buu exclaimed, turning to face Dabura as Babidee stared on blankly.   
  
"Eat me, will you? Well eat _this_!" Dabura howled in reply, throwing the blast straight Buu, detonating in a black cloud around Buu, Babidee and Shin. Dabura grinned, stepping back and resting his hands on his knees heavily. "Me gonna eat you up, me gonna eat you up, me gonna eat you up..." Buu sang, prancing merrily through the cloud of smoke and then smiling impishly at Dabura.   
  
The Demon King snarled and lunged forward, but Buu was prepared far in advance.   
  
"**_TURN INTO A COOKIE!!!_**"   
  
_ Goodbye!   
  
_ Dabura howled and slowly began changing, stiffening up, altering his shape and turning dough brown, finally hardening to reveal a five foot long, inch thick cookie in the shape of the former Demon King. It dropped soundly towards the ground, only to have Buu swipe it right up an instant later and nonchalantly cram it into his mouth, using his fists to smash his cheeks back to normal while chewing away happily.   
  
"Oh my..." Babidee commented as the smoke cleared, staring in awe.   
  
  
"**_DID YOU JUST SEE THAT?!_**" Trunks and Goten asked each other in unison, right as Krillin and Zangya let out gasps and fell to their knees in disbelief. "What the heck just happened?!" Krillin yelped, glancing over at Zangya. "I don`t have a clue," she answered in reply, staring at her hands for a moment. "Where are the others?" She asked. "What`re you two doing... Oh, oh..." Goten said, glancing sideways at Trunks. The two had both put it together in the exact same instant, and Jack howled with laughter in Goten`s mind.   
  
"Uhm... Trunks," Goten began. "Yeah," Trunks agreed, floating up off of the ground and gazing over the ledge at the disgustingly broken remains of Piccolo. He winced and hovered back down, looking outright disturbed. "We... We have to keep this a secret," Trunks muttered in disbelief. "Keep what a secret?" Piccolo asked, standing on the ledge above them, utterly unscathed. "Piccolo?!" Trunks yelped, falling over in surprise. Goten stared briefly and shook his head, not bothering to feel surprise at the moment.   
  
"So that must be Buu," Piccolo commented, glancing down at the huge creature. "Yeah, he just ate that Dabura guy and then you three all popped up," Goten replied. "He ate Dabura?" Zangya asked in mild disbelief. "Yep, turned `im into a cookie and ate `im," Goten answered. "How did you come back?" Trunks asked. "I can regenerate so long as my head isn`t damaged," Piccolo replied. "Oh..." Trunks mumbled, kneeling down next to Goten while Krillin and Zangya jumped up to meet them, kneeling to either side of the two boys.   
  
  
"Wonderful Buu, wonderful!" Babidee praised. "Now do that to the Kaioshin!" He ordered, pointing at the downed god with disdain. "Yum!" Buu shouted, focusing on the Kaioshin and thinking of what to turn him into.   
  
_ You haven't learned a thing   
I haven't changed a thing   
My flesh was in my bones   
The pain was always free   
  
"What a **wonderful** way to die,"_ Shin thought sourly, managing to open his eyes, though he had serious trouble hearing anything. _"I guess this all makes me the last god that failed... If my jaw wasn`t broken shut, I`d probably laugh,"_ he thought. _"Kill me already you fat twit."   
  
_ Buu paused in a moment of indecision, calmly seating himself on the Kaioshin`s back as he did so, gingerly, rocking back and forth from time to time. "Cookie, chocolate or cake... Cookie, chocolate or cake..." He thought to himself, grinding Shin`s ruined internal organs to dust in the process. "Cookie, chocolate, or cake?" He asked, glancing over at Babidee, who paused to think it through himself. "Cake would likely be the sweetest, that`s what I`d go for," he stated.   
  
"Okay!" Buu replied, bouncing up and down on Shin and eliciting an agonized groan from the bloodied god. "Oh good, he`s awake now. Now, time to die, Kaioshin! Say hello to my Father in Hell for me, would you?" Babidee asked. "Fllk... Ghu," Shin managed to gurgle out, glaring at Babidee with his good eye, the other had crusted shut and was beneath the dirt with the other half of his face. "I`ll take that as a yes," Babidee replied, winding up and giving Shin one last, hard kick into the face, rolling the small god over and onto his back before stepping off to the side.   
  
"Go to town, Buu!" He ordered. Though Buu would`ve likely gone to a town if he knew what such a thing was, he instead opted to eat first, ask questions later.   
  
"**_TURN INTO A CA_**-" Buu was soundly interrupted by a massive explosion, not half the size of several huge explosions seen over the course of the day, but more than large enough to cause Babidee`s ship to go sky high in flames and smoke, rattling the sorcerer severely and breaking Buu`s attention on the ever dying Kaioshin.   
  
"My space ship!" Babidee exclaimed in surprise.   
  
  
"What was that?!" Piccolo shouted. "An explosion, dumb ass!" Zangya quipped sarcastically. "I appreciate your sense of humor Zangya, but _**NOW IS NOT THE TIME!**_" Krillin shouted. "It`s always the time!" Zangya retorted defensively. "Not right now!" Krillin yelled. "**_WILL YOU BOTH SHUT THE HELL UP?!_**" Piccolo screamed, causing Krillin and Zangya to both glare at him. "We`re surrounded by idiots," Trunks muttered. "Yep," Goten replied.   
  
_ I've felt the hate rise up in me  
Kneel down and clear the stone of leaves  
I wander out where you can't see  
Inside my shell, I wait and bleed  
  
_ "Damn it! What the hell is going on here?!" Babidee demanded, watching as a singular figure descended out of the top of the smoke cloud, touching down almost soundlessly, surrounded by a glow of golden fire and echoed by the cracks of electric blue around his aura. Vegeta had broken loose, and the Prince of all Saiyans had come to clean up his own mess for once in his life.   
  
"Heh," he voiced. "Vegeta, how dare you!" Babidee shouted. "I never ordered you to blow up my ship!" He screamed over at the Prince, who looked straight past him uninterestedly, focusing solely on Buu. "Is that fat oaf the one who killed Gohan?" He asked simply.   
  
  
"**_HUH?!_**" Piccolo yelped in shock, staring down at the battlefield in a mixture of horror and surprise. _"Gohan..."_ Piccolo thought, gaping down at the battlefield. "Piccolo? What did my dad say?" Trunks asked.   
  
  
"What does 'oaf' mean?" Buu asked, glancing down at Babidee. "It means he doesn`t like you," Babidee replied. Buu smiled for a few seconds more and then took on the look of a child that was angry, puffing up briefly before a cloud of gas flooded out of the holes lining his head and arms. "**_I`M MAD NOW! I`M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!_**" Buu exclaimed angrily, still venting internal gasses out by the truckload.   
  
"That`s fine with me, I don`t need him anymore," Babidee commented.   
  
  
"Buu`s ki just got a whole lot bigger," Zangya mumbled. "How strong is he?" Krillin wondered.   
  
_ And it waits for you!   
  
_ "At least I won`t be going to Hell by myself then," Vegeta smirked. "You two will be my guides!" He exclaimed, blasting Buu back while powering up, throwing everything but Babidee and Buu right off of the ground and into the air. Shin tumbled blindly around, finally coming to skid along before bouncing back up, eventually leaving the area-of-effect and tumbling along into a grassy, forested area, barely able to even breathe on his own.   
  
_ "Vegeta must have some kind of death wish,"_ he thought before passing out again.   
  
  
"**_LET`S GO BUU!!!_**" Vegeta howled, rocketing off the ground towards the huge pink creature.   
  
Buu only smiled.   
  


_ End Part Nine  
  


* * *

  
  
_

**Author`s Note:** _Another_ cliffhanger... Evil, isn`t it?  
  
And yeah diamond, that always perplexed me too... Just what in the hell did that poor sap do to have virtually every uber evil in history somehow end up on Earth? And I doubt Vegeta would be a good Happy Hills patient... Seriously, he`d blow all our straitjackets up before we could wear them :[  
  
Sh33p out. Peace.  
  



	10. Points of Authority Redux

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations  
**_ Points of Authority Redux_  
  
  
  


Babidee grimaced, watching as Vegeta soundly decked Buu four times, though the sorcerer`s eyes only percieved one. Buu faltered, Vegeta lashed out with a vicious kick and dented half of Buu`s head in. Vegeta whipped back and Buu started falling over sideways, but Babidee was only barely able to see Vegeta`s hand come up and swipe across his servant`s cheek, sending Buu to stand dazedly on his feet. Vegeta jumped back and threw off a series of high powered ki blasts, blasting the area around Buu to nothing, though the battlefield had already been scarred more than enough over the past hour or three that it wasn`t much of a difference.   
  
_ "Now, let`s see how the big fat son of a bitch likes **that**,"_ Vegeta thought while floating back onto the ground. Apparently though, Buu liked it enough to come prancing happily right out of the cloud of smoke that the attack had kicked up, utterly unharmed. He`d regenerated perfectly, there wasn`t even a trace of anything on his body or clothing. Vegeta snorted. Raising up his hand, Vegeta let out a shout and powered a Kienzan above his palm, quickly throwing it right at Buu, who allowed the attack to pass through him like it was nothing. Seconds later, Buu`s upper body was hovering, detached from the fallen lower half of his anatomy, which had tripped and fallen on it`s own.   
  
"Hey!" Buu griped, glaring down at his lower half. It gradually seemed to melt, then formed back up into Buu`s body, regenerating perfectly once again. "Great," Vegeta muttered in half-disbelief. "Just great."   
  
_ Forfeit the game, before somebody else takes you out of the frame  
Puts your name to shame, cover up your face, you can`t run the race  
The pace is too fast, you just won`t last  
  
_ The group that was left after all of the fighters but Videl and Juu had gone off for some reason or another wasn`t really big enough to need more than one airbus. It was a little crowded, true, but not bad enough to need a second airbus anymore. Currently though, the only talk running through the insides of the ship wasn`t on the Tenkaichi Budoukai, as it would`ve been on a better day, but rather, the current talk was of something that boggled the imagination of at least one person in the airbus.   
  
Bulma Briefs had been called many things in life. Short tempered, rash, egomaniacal, greedy, annoying, beautiful, vain, mildly psychotic, and a whole list of expletives that aren`t worth repeating. While, sad to say, most of these were true, Bulma had managed to mellow out a good bit over the past few years, mainly since the shock of parenthood had kicked her hard enough to knock her head loose from it`s former position up in her rear end. Now while she was still short tempered, rash, a little arrogant, definately a bit greedy, certainly at least a little annoying, her beauty was starting to hit that high point in life before looks fade, her vanity had gone down at least a bit, and she had managed to fix the 'mildly psychotic' part until that time of the month, she also happened to care a good deal for a select group of people on the Earth. Everyone else could just go die for all she really cared, but this group of people was different, and chief among them were an even smaller group of people.   
  
Chief among _this_ group of people was one Prince Vegeta Bejita the Fifty-fifth(though only Bulma happened to know his last name). Contrary to popular belief, the two were not 'mates,' in fact, Saiyans had this strange tendancy to burst into insane laughter when someone brought up the word 'mate' and tried to apply it to their species. This was because 'mating' was something animals did. Saiyans, contrary to popular belief despite having tails and being able to turn into giant monkeys with massive overbites, weren`t really that animalistic. Most were just - to crudely put it - assholes. And no, things like the 'Bonding' didn`t even exist anywhere in their entire evolutionary history, though things of that nature likely _did_ exist somewhere in the universe at some point, just not for a race that evolved itself into being with the sheer goal of killing anything that moves in mind.   
  
Instead, Bulma and Vegeta had indeed gotten married in a very off sort of way, by common law they were married and neither gave enough of a damn to try conventional marriage.   
  
After that came the **_extremely_** unlikely candidate of one Yamcha Soza, Bulma`s ex-boyfriend and ex-enemy. The two hadn`t exactly had what you could call a 'peachy' friendship after their break up, but in the grand scheme of things, Yamcha was the only reason Vegeta and Bulma hadn`t killed one another at least twice daily. The two weren`t the closest of friends but he`d unwittingly become Bulma`s only real trustee about 90% of her private life so yeah, he mattered to her more than she`d admit(though she did have a slight desire to see him squirm every time she saw him in a fighting gi).   
  
After that came the immediate grouping of the Sons, Goku, ChiChi, Gohan and Goten, and her own child, Trunks. These were the people, including Yamcha and Vegeta, that Bulma really cared about. After that, yes, she cared a good bit for everyone in that small group(including Krillin, despite their always constant insult wars), but that key little group amidst the larger circle of friends she had composed the people she _truly_ cared for. In her eyes, these people could scarcely do anything wrong.   
  
And that`s exactly why it was all but impossible for her to even visualize Vegeta doing what he had done earlier in the day. _"How could he do that? It was like he was aiming **right for me** and missed unintentionally,"_ she thought, ignoring the conversation around her. _"What the heck happened to you, Vegeta?"_ Bulma asked, glancing out of the window.   
  
  
Vegeta had fought many hundreds of uphill battles in his life. Battles against superior numbers, superior powers, superior skills, sometimes two or all three at once, but he`d won almost all of them but a few. He`d gone head to head with foe after foe, from cyba men to the Ginyu Force, and he`d killed almost all of them. In his life though, in all of the 42 or so years he`d been alive, Vegeta had _never_ faced a battle quite as uphill as this.   
  
For one thing, most of his foes but Cell and Cell Junior, he could at least cause a _bit_ of permanent damage. With Cell and Cell Junior they regenerated but he could still _hurt_ them, badly. With Buu? Buu just smiled at him like an infant and reinflated himself after every attack. It was outright annoying, and foreboding at the same time. Vegeta though, refused to give in. Honor and pride were on the line here, along with pretty much all of existence as an afterthought, and Vegeta outright _refused_ to bow down for any reason.   
  
He drew back, Buu saw an opening and lashed out. His fist carried straight through the air like a whip and smashed into Vegeta`s cheek with the same kind of force as Goku`s heaviest punches. Vegeta staggered back and then hauled himself upright, powering up a ki blast into his hand and throwing it, though it was only a distraction. Vegeta played the control trump card, forcing the blast to suddenly arcing up away from it`s intended impact point and into the skies, and Buu watched it every single second.   
  
Vegeta didn`t even bother with trash talk, jumping forward and landing an angry kick into Buu`s exposed chin - the creature seemed to utterly lack a throat - and knocking it`s head back, almost off of it`s body in fact. Buu didn`t even seem very phased by the attack at all, righting itself in a blur and sending it`s forehead - literally - shooting at Vegeta, who dodged out of the way and then took flight, blasting away from Buu only to double back around and fly at Buu, dragging his fist along the ground before uppercutting the huge creature straight off of the ground and into the air.   
  
Vegeta wasn`t finished either, he shot right up off of the ground after Buu, backflipped himself so that his feet were aimed at Buu. Vegeta waited, getting ever closer to the obese destroyer, than slammed his feet forward, right into the small of it`s back. Buu let out a grunt and went flying even further up, right into a number of low flying clouds several miles up, with Vegeta no more than a step behind.   
  
Buu let out a howl and went crashing back down toward the ground, but Vegeta was a step ahead, moving at full speed past Buu and sending a vicious uppercut into the huge creature`s back. Buu let out a grunt as Vegeta`s hand tore straight into his body, rumbling through, inch by inch, deeper and deeper and deeper still into the mass of pink, shredding through Buu`s cape and then right through the pink silly putty that made up Buu himself.   
  
And then Vegeta paused, lowering Buu to stand on his feet still before powering up, the dusts rushing around the two combatants whilst Buu struggled around on Vegeta`s fist, either in pain or in utter amusement, it wasn`t clear. Vegeta continued to power up, straightening his hand within Buu`s back, even as the creature`s body began to try and heal around his hand. Fingers flatly extended, thumb crossed over the palm, hand rigidly held up relative to the direction of the arm, and then a slight bluish-golden glow began to emanate from Vegeta`s hand.   
  
"**_BIG BANG ATTACK!!!_**"   
  
Buu howled and tumbled right off of Vegeta`s fist, his already bulging gut seeming to extend out by at least seven feet before tearing open, a bolt of ki sheering through and flaring off into the distance. Buu contrinued tumbling along after the break, slamming into the ground with a howl and rolling along for several dozen feet before lying on it`s back, a large hole in both it`s cape and it`s body.   
  
Vegeta waited.   
  
  
"Did he do it?" Goten asked, leaning forward a bit. "Of course he did, he`s my dad, what do you expect?" Trunks replied. "He very well may have killed Buu just now," Piccolo agreed. "But I doubt it," he added. Krillin just twitched a bit in awe and Zangya kept a cautious eye to the field. "I don`t think so either," Goten replied. "Seems too easy. Way too easy," he mused. "Don`t jinx us!" Trunks shouted. "Alright, alright, he did it, he did it!" Goten yelled, putting little - if any - feeling into it. "That`s more like it," Trunks stated, looking back to the battlefield below and then facefaulting.   
  
"He didn`t do it..."   
  
  
Buu slowly hauled it`s bulk back up off the ground, the hole still plainly apparent, much to Vegeta`s surprise. Babidee had run out of words to say back at the beginning of the fight, but Buu just shook his head, then crossed it`s arms over his face and uncrossed them an instant later, it`s gut popping into existence again less than an instant later, just as the hole in it`s cape repaired.   
  
"What the hell?" Vegeta asked.   
  
Buu just glared at him, snorting briefly before holding it`s arms in an 'X' over it`s chest once again, leaning forward as a pinkish glow filled the entire area. "I`m..." He began, a pink-red dome suddenly forming up around him within the main glow of the area. "Mad..." He continued, just as the ground began to rumble and crack beneath he and Vegeta`s feet. The Prince suddenly realized what was about to happen, but it was already far too late.   
  
"**_I HATE YOU!!!_**" Buu screamed, and as he did, the whole world trembled.   
  
  
"Everyone take cover!" Piccolo shouted, diving down behind the rock, followed seconds later by Goten and Trunks, then Zangya and Krillin. "I was wondering when I was gonna die again!" The former monk yelped. "Again?!" Zangya asked. "I die once every nine to eleven years, sucks, don`t it?!" Krillin asked, somehow finding the guts to be able to speak without trembling as that pinkish glow from seconds before turned into a full on explosion, visible from deep space.   
  
  
Shockwaves spread across the atmosphere, glass anywhere within five hundred miles shattered into dust, concrete snapped, the land around the explosion was simply eviscerated. For almost a minute straight, the blast continued, violently sheering through the ground for several hundred feet straight down, then finally petering itself out to reveal two figures hanging prominently in the skies. One was the dancing form of Majin Buu, so proud of it`s newest work of destructive art, the way it had blown out a perfectly round crater running a perfectly deep distance straight down. The other was the haggard looking Babidee, who was hovering in a bubble that looked like glass with black sparkles sprayed onto the top and bottom.   
  
And then the barrier faded, Babidee hovered to the side and glanced down to see a staggering, bloodied Vegeta favoring an equally bloodied, currently limp right arm. "That guy really is lucky," Babidee commented, watching Vegeta wobble from side to side. "It`s really a shame he had to go and betray me, I could`ve used someone with that kind of power."   
  
"Damn him," Vegeta muttered, staring up at the overjoyed looking Buu. "Damn them _both_ to Hell right along with me," he growled. Buu only seemed to giggle at his words, lowering down to the ground across from him before reaching to it`s stomach and taking it`s gut in hand.   
  
_ You love the way, I look at you   
  
_ Vegeta had seen and done many disgusting things in his life. He`d seen men and women dive off of cliffs rather than face him, and he`d ripped the limbs off of worldly defenders and eaten them raw. None of that quite surpassed the disgust factor of Buu ripping out a chunk of it`s own limitless body fat and molding it into a jump rope. "What a disgusting creature," he said with surprise in his voice. Buu didn`t seem to notice his words though, it jumped along on the piece of it`s body for a few seconds before taking it into one hand and twirling it around. Buu rapidly started walking forward, belching out a blast of purple-pink ki with each step.   
  
Vegeta jumped out of the way of every last one of them, landing on one hand and springing back into the air before phasing out of the way of yet another blast of energy. When he reappeared though, it was apparent - painfully so - that Majin Buu had outsmarted him. Badly.   
  
_ "Shit."   
  
While taking pleasure in the awful things you put me through   
  
_ Vegeta, now bound in roughly twelve feet of hardened silly putty with malicious intent, tumbled from the air, landing hard on his face while Buu merrily pranced up to him, tap dancing around him and coming dangerously close to stomping Vegeta`s head in on more than one occasion during this little dance. Then Buu came to a ballet-like pause to Vegeta`s left, bent forward, supported on the toes of one foot with it`s other leg held high and behind itself.   
  
And then it roughly kicked Vegeta with that same leg, throwing the Prince up into the air and sending him spinning towards the ground after almost ten seconds of flight time. Vegeta landed with a sickening thud , rolling along until he was on his back, looking up just in time to see Buu coming down on him.   
  
He landed hard. Very hard, hard enough to make a three inch deep imprint of the material he`d used to wrap Vegeta in, causing Vegeta to scream out in unspeakable pain only to be silenced repeatedly by a punch to the face. And then another punch, and then a whole chain of them, raining down into the sides of Vegeta`s face, each one drawing blood, leaving a mark or a bruise that was soon annihilated by the punch that hit the same area after it, and generally leaving Vegeta with nothing to do but sit there and die, even as Buu paused it`s punch fest and jumped up again, crashing back down hard enough to put Vegeta in deep enough that that Prince couldn`t even move his head.   
  
And then the punches started raining in again.   
  
_ You take away, if I give in  
You love the things, I say I`ll do  
  
_ "Father!" Trunks yelled, hopping up and flaring his ki straight into Super Saiyan. Hauling up off of the ground and rocketing towards the battlefield without delay. Goten jumped up and powered up into Super Saiyan as well, but the shock effect had worn off and Piccolo snapped a hand out, grabbing Goten around the ankle and trying to hold him back. It wasn`t hard, for all of his potential energy, Goten hadn`t yet surpassed Piccolo in strength. "We can`t afford to lose you as well!"   
  
But what he lacked in power, Goten made up for in logic. "You wouldn`t do this if I was Gohan!" He yelled at Piccolo, who automatically let go and stood there wincing. Goten shot off, bursting after Trunks and making up for lost time in a matter of seconds.   
  
_ The way I`ll hurt myself again, just to get back at you   
  
"If. I. Could. Just. Get. Out. Of. Here..."_ Vegeta thought, though every word was broken by a punch raining into his face. "Where`s all your talk now?!" Buu asked in that childlike voice it had. "Didn`t you say you`d kill me?" It asked again. "Well maybe if you`d stop beating the snot out of me, I would!" Vegeta replied, managing to get the words off coherently even through a hard punch into his forehead.   
  
_ "There`s. Only. One. Way. I. Can. Kill. Him,"_ Vegeta reasoned, finally managing to realize that conventional tactics were all but futile. If he could just escape, he`d be able to end it. He knew he would.   
  
_ My life, my pride is broken   
  
_ "**_SOMEONE GET THIS FAT SON - AGH - OF A BITCH - NGH - OFF OF ME!!!_**" Vegeta screamed, even as yet another fist slammed across his face.   
  
This time however, the impact was only fleeting. Almost as if his prayers had been answered on the dot, Buu flew sideways off of Vegeta, tumbling along on the ground before splashing through the side of the nearby, singed mountain and tunneling straight to it`s core. The old rock trembled briefly and collapsed hard, forming a massive pile of debris as large as any ever seen by most of the combatants.   
  
Vegeta lay in semi-conciousness, barely able to even think straight. "That should get him down for a few minutes," Trunks surmised while Goten touched down and started to unwrap Vegeta, yanking the silly putty-like rope off of him and rolling him onto his back. "Vegeta?" Goten asked. "Hey Trunks, get over here! I think he`s not gonna wake up!" Goten shouted.   
  
"This is rich," Jack commented sarcastically.   
  
_ You like to think you`re never wrong  
You like to act like you`re someone  
  
_ "What in the hell was that?" Babidee yelped, hovering between the two vapor trails of the young half-saiyans, staring at them. "What kind of idiot goes charging off to die against Majin Buu?!" He demanded, shaking his head briefly. "Those with the courage and honor you lack," a gruff voice answered from behind. Babidee slowly turned around. "Ah, green with envy at Buu`s power I see?" He asked smugly. "I`m always green," Piccolo answered. "And this," he pointed over at the surrounding area. "Is all your fault. Directly or indirectly, you are the cause of all of this."   
  
Babidee grimaced. "Even if I can`t kill Buu, I can still kill _you_," he stated, raising his hand back. "Ah, ah, ahhh," Babidee stated, holding a finger at the Namek. "Kill me and no one can imprison Buu. He`ll destroy everything," Babidee threatened. "Isn`t that what`s going to happen anyway?" Piccolo asked. Babidee winced. "**_BUU! GET OVER HERE AND KILL THIS GUY!!!_**" Babidee screamed.   
  
"That`s what I thought. Now, **_DIE!!_**!" Piccolo shouted, lashing out. "Barrier!" Babidee managed to scream, just as the Namek`s hand crashed into his magics. "You can`t defeat my magics you idiot, not even the Kaioshin could!" Babidee exclaimed. "And I`m not him," Piccolo replied, shouting loudly before literally plowing through the barrier. Babidee shrieked like a child. "Sayonara," Piccolo growled, swiftly slicing the small sorcerer in half, severing an arm in the process, and sending him crashing to the ground hundreds of feet below.   
  
"Nice style," Zangya commended. "Shouldn`t you be back with Krillin?" Piccolo asked. "Unlike midget boy, I have no common sense," Zangya replied simply enough. "You`re right. You don`t," Piccolo muttered before glancing down at the drama playing out below.   
  
  
"Dad? Dad!? Wake up!" Trunks shouted. "I don`t think he`s gettin` up, Trunks," Goten stated, glancing warily in the direction where Trunks had kicked Buu into the mountain. "My dad`s a prince, Goten, he`ll wake up!" Trunks shouted harshly at his friend, who didn`t even flinch. "_**SWEET MOTHER OF KAMI, THIS IS FUNNY AS HELL!!!**_" Jack cackled. _"Shut. Up. Now,"_ Goten ordered, earning only a snickering fit from the imaginary friend he couldn`t seem to get rid of.   
  
Vegeta groaned and quietly glanced up at Trunks, almost smiling but not quite. His face felt mostly numb and his vision was more than a little blurry and redshifted, but the sight before him managed to at least help stir him. "What are you two doing here?" He asked.   
  
"We saved you," Trunks replied. Vegeta almost burst into a laugh but supressed it, managing to stand himself up straight with a wobble.   
  
"Sure you did," Vegeta replied, gazing up at Piccolo, ignoring the fact that Zangya was even in the area. Piccolo gave only a nod.   
  
_ You want someone to hurt like you  
You want to share what you`ve been through  
You live what you learn  
  
"It`s time then,"_ Vegeta thought, keeping his eyes glued to Piccolo. The two had an in depth understanding of one another still, after all, Piccolo had been one of the only people that Vegeta had ever considered more than just an acquaintance after his family, Nappa and Radditz. _"I know what I have to do..."   
  


End Part Ten  
  


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_ **Author`s Note:** Another cliffy... I`m guessing everyone has probably figured out what he`s about to do but ah well...  
  
I`m not sayin` :P  
  
And diamondgirl, yeah, he might blast the authorities and he might be calmed with the pink 'BADMAN' straitjacket, but this is Vegeta here... We`d need an entire support network of Goku, Bulma, Trunks and Goten, maybe Piccolo too, just to keep him under control... Hmm... *Goes to think on this.*   
  
Ah well... Sh33p out folks, peace!  
  



	11. The Show Must Go On

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


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** Hybrid Theory: Generations**  
_ The Show Must Go On   
  
  
  
_

"Trunks..." Vegeta began, still looking to Piccolo as if the Namek had some sort of clue as to how to continue with what he was about to say and do. Piccolo shook his head 'no' and Vegeta just gave a surprisingly whistful smirk. _"It figures I`d have to do this with no aid,"_ he thought, shifting his gaze down to Trunks. "It`s just occured to me that I haven`t held you since you were a baby," he stated. "Huh?" Trunks asked. "Come here, son," Vegeta answered. Trunks did as told without bothering to question, and for the first time in his seven year life, found himself being embraced by his father in a way other than a training spar. "I`m proud of you Trunks," Vegeta exclaimed, wrapping an arm around his son`s shoulders. It was literally the first time he`d shown affection to virtually _anyone_ with no strings attached to it.   
  
"You`ve become strong, stronger than I ever dreamt of being at your age. A true Saiyan, even if I never told you so," Vegeta explained. "Dad?" Trunks asked. "I`m very proud of you son."   
  
"Dad, this is embarrassing..." Trunks mumbled, utterly flattered senseless, yes, but at the same time slightly embarrassed since he wasn`t used to it at all. Goten barely paid attention to the pair, still staring over at where Trunks had knocked Buu. "I know I haven`t been there for you the way I should have been, and I know it`s only made you stronger but now, looking back on it, I wish it`d gone different."   
  
"Why are you doing this?" Trunks asked.   
  
_ Empty spaces, what are we waiting for  
Abandoned places, I guess we know the score  
On and on, does anybody know what we are looking for  
Another hero, another mindless crime  
  
_ "Take care of your mother for me. And tell her I loved the both of you, even more than fighting," he exclaimed. "Dad..."   
  
"Good-bye, son," Vegeta said with a shake of the head, soundly landing a quick chop into Trunks` neck. The boy let out a grunt and fell sideways to one knee, fading out of Super Saiyan and then fading out of conciousness as well. He landed with a small thump on the ground, just as Goten turned around.   
  
_ Behind the curtain in the pantomime  
Hold the line, does anybody want to take it anymore?   
  
_ "And you, little warrior," Vegeta began, silencing any of Goten`s would-be protests by bending forward and nailing him solidly in the gut with one fist. Goten lurched forward, fading out of Super Saiyan but not conciousness. Not yet anyway. "Do your father, brother _and_ your Prince proud," Vegeta stated, withdrawing his fist and standing up straight. Goten would`ve likely gone on a child`s tirade if he hadn`t passed out on his knees and landed face down in the dirt, not even twitching.   
  
"What the hell did he just do that for?!" Zangya gaped. Piccolo shook his head. "Go get Krillin, we`re leaving and I don`t think Vegeta or I want you to hear what`s about to transpire," he stated. "You think I`m gonna bow out, just like that?" Zangya protested. "You can leave or else Vegeta and I can both knock you out, take your pick," Piccolo retorted. "Alright, I`ll be waiting with fuzzy," Zangya exclaimed, flaring an aura around her form and then rocketing back towards Krillin on the edge of the battlefield.   
  
"Good," Piccolo muttered, turning back to Vegeta while he descended towards the ground, moving slowly. The air itself was heavy as the two exchanged glances while Piccolo picked up Trunks and Goten, one under each arm. "You`re going to do it, aren`t you?" Piccolo asked. "Yes," Vegeta answered, glancing over his shoulder in the direction where Buu was likely just now beginning to struggle to get free. "I never pegged you to be a sacrificial warrior," Piccolo smirked. "And neither did I," Vegeta replied. "Stranger things have happened," Piccolo commented. "You mean like the Kakospawn looking like their father compared to how Trunks looks like his mother?"   
  
"Kakospawn, eh? Didn`t hear you calling them that earlier," Piccolo smirked. "Not my fault you haven`t gone deaf by now with all of the screaming the Kakobitch does," Vegeta replied. "Like that blue haired sociopath you call a lover is much better? Besides, you`re just jealous that you`re not green," Piccolo pointed out.   
  
_ The show must go on  
The show must go on   
Inside my heart is breaking   
My make-up may be flaking, but my smile... still stays on   
  
_ "Perhaps," Vegeta chuckled briefly. "I`m going to miss these little jousting matches with you," he conceded. "Indeed," Piccolo agreed. The conversation suddenly turned somber however, foreboding. "Tell me, Piccolo, am I going to meet Kakarot in the afterlife?" Vegeta asked, again sparing glancing over at the stone pile that Buu was buried under. "I`m going to have to be blunt and honest with you Vegeta," Piccolo warned. "Go ahead," Vegeta shrugged.   
  
"Goku spent his entire life doing nothing but good deeds, risking his life for people he didn`t know and often only barely cared for. He saved planets and the universe on more than one occasion, and for his heroism and his final sacrifice, he was rewarded handsomely with the right to go to the Dai Kaio`s world to train," Piccolo began. "You spent much of your life bringing little other than pain and suffering, death and destruction to hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions for all I know. While you`ve done much to change your fate over the past few years, you`ve caused far too much damage for the same kind of reward. When you die, your soul will probably be cleansed and sent on into your next incarnation, while your body and everything about you will likely be sent to Hell for the rest of eternity," Piccolo finished.   
  
Vegeta was silent for a few moments.   
  
And then he smiled regretfully. "Oh well," he sighed. "If that`s what my fate shall be, then I`ll face it with the same madness I faced most of the challenges in my life with," he stated. "If I see Gohan before my judgement, I`ll tell him you said to take care," Vegeta offered. "You have my thanks," Piccolo replied. "Good, now get going, Buu will break loose any second," Vegeta said, and just as he did, both of their attentions darted to the pile of rubble a few hundred feet away, which suddenly tore itself apart in a maelstrom of pinkish tinted wind, vaporizing in a matter of seconds before an unharmed Majin Buu came stomping out.   
  
"Go, _now_," Vegeta ordered through grit teeth. "Good luck," Piccolo offered before igniting an aura around himself and blasting up off of the ground at his full speed. "Hey! Which one of them hit me!?" Buu demanded, making ready to storm after them. "**_HOLD IT RIGHT THERE FAT ASS!!!_**" Vegeta screamed, grabbing Buu`s attention once again. The creature growled ferally and began to slowly step towards him, shaking the ground with each meaty step.   
  
"If you`re going after them, you have to finish your business with me first, got that?" Vegeta demanded.   
  
_ Whatever happens I'll leave it all to chance  
Another heartache, another failed romance  
On and on, does anybody know what we are living for  
I guess I'm learning  
  
_ "What the hell`s going on over there?!" Zangya demanded as Piccolo flashed by them. "Get moving!" He yelled behind at them. Both Krillin and Zangya exchanged worried looks and darted after the Namek, catching up after a short number of seconds. "Well?!" Krillin asked. "Vegeta`s about to do the one thing none of us ever thought he`d do!" Piccolo explained. "He`s fighting for others for the first time in his life, and he`s going to go _all_ out!" He added.   
  
"Then that means..." Zangya paused. "You can`t be serious!" She yelled. "Dead serious!" Piccolo replied. "**_WILL ONE OF YOU TELL ME WHAT THE HECK YOU`RE TALKING ABOUT?!_**" Krillin demanded hoarsely.   
  
I must be warmer now  
I'll soon be turning round the corner now  
Outside the dawn is breaking   
But inside in the dark I'm aching to be free   
  
"That`s right Buu, finish with _me_ first, understand?!" Vegeta asked, raising his good hand up and balling it tightly into a fist, hard enough that parts of the glove started to tear. "I`m gonna eat you!" Buu threatened angrily. "Then come and _EAT ME_ fatso!" Vegeta replied, just as the ground began to rattle and dust started shaking up. Golden flames arced high off of the ground around Vegeta, who was surrounded by no less than three auras: An aura of lightning, an outer aura of flame and an inner aura of golden, shaped into the form of an imperfect sphere.   
  
"I think I finally understand you," he stated with a smirk. "I`ll turn you into a cookie!" Buu threatened, actually too frightened of the effects going on around him to do anything serious at this point. Dust rose up to chest height, billowing around as the flame of Vegeta`s second and the lightning of his third aura both began to grow, larger and larger, to the size of a small house even.   
  
_ The show must go on  
The show must go on, yeah  
Inside my heart is breaking   
My make-up may be flaking, but my smile... still stays on   
  
_ "Come on Buu, come turn me into a cookie already!" Vegeta demanded. "Or are you all talk, no game?!" He asked. Buu sneered and began to move forward, only to find it hard to stand anymore. Vegeta suddenly felt a snap in the back of his mind. _"It won`t be long now,"_ he thought. _"If I`m right, I just broke my own barrier, which means the end is about to happen in the next minute or so. Just have to keep Buu in place till then,"_ Vegeta thought, smiling to himself, even as his eyebrows began to look a bit heavier and his hair became a shred longer.   
  
"I`m going to crush you and throw you into the wind!" Vegeta threatened, still buying time and knowing it. _"Just a little longer..."_ He thought, watching Buu growl and finally began to work up the guts to walk towards him, just as the last signs of Vegeta`s attack began to become truly apparent.   
  
"It`s snowing..." Buu thought aloud to itself, confusing snow with the rainbow hewed bits of energy now rising out of the dust, off of even himself. The very air suddenly began to become super heated, the ground began to tremble lightly and the wind began to rush, faster and faster. Vegeta`s aura billowed outward ever further, his inner aura beginning to shrink down. His eyebrows were almost entirely gone now, his forehead was noticably heavier and his hair had actually fallen forward a bit, hanging over his face and looking heavier as well, and even more golden than before.   
  
_ "It`s time,"_ Vegeta thought to himself, somberly remembering the events of his life that had led up to this singular moment. And at the end of it, he could only do one thing: He smiled.   
  
_ My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies  
Fairy tales of yesterday will grow but never die  
I can fly, my friends  
  
"I do this for you... Trunks... Bulma..."_ Vegeta thought, the last vestages of hair leaving his now neanderthalesque eyebrows, his jaded eyes themselves gaining small but noticable pupils. _"Even you, Kakarot,"_ Vegeta thought with a smirk.   
  
"Time to die, Buu!" Vegeta yelled, catching the creature`s attentions one last time. Buu rushed forward and jumped right up, out of the dust, descending down on Vegeta with a feral scream only to find itself held in place on the outer wall of Vegeta`s second aura, as the first aura, the sphere, finished imploding around his body.   
  
_ "Good-bye."   
  
The show must go on  
The show must go on  
I'll face it with a grin  
I'm never giving in, on with the show   
_  
"You`re shitting me! Please say you`re shitting me!" Krillin demanded as he, Zangya and Piccolo, along with the still unconcious Trunks and Goten, continued along on their path away from where the battle should have been taking place. "If I was lying, I`d tell you, now hurry up!" Piccolo replied, right as the entire Earth began to shake, and right as a shockwave of heated air blew past the lot of them, knocking out auras and forcing the three onward further than even they had intended.   
  
"Ah crap," Zangya muttered, looking back over her shoulder at the growing fireball in the distance, golden hewed and bright as any mid-day sun ever seen by any mortal eye. A second shockwave of heated air rushed by, and then a third and then a fourth, leaving only Krillin with the presence of mind to actually say anything at all.   
  
"**_VEGETA!!!_**"   
  
_ I'll top the bill, I'll overkill  
I have to find the will to carry on  
On with the show, my friends   
  
_ And at the core of the fireball that day, one of the Earth`s mightiest, most unlikely defenders fell. His name was Vegeta.   
  
_ The show must go on   
  
_ A proud, Saiyan Prince.   
  
_

End Part Eleven  


_  


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**Author`s Note:** Real A/N next part.  
  



	12. EP  Unforgiven

  
  
**Disclaimer:** Don`t own DBZ.  
  
**Sidenote:** Text enclosed in brackets( [ and ] ) is Saiyago since I`m too lazy to translate it all.  
  


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**

Hybrid Theory: Generations  


** _Unforgiven   
  
  
  
__ New blood joins this Earth _  
  
It was the thirteenth day of the fifteenth month of the Saiyan calendar, on a world named for the first in a long line of war lords turned kings. Vegetasei, Planet Vegeta, Bejita... It had many names. On this day though, it was a special place for a small empire that spanned the borders of a lightyear in any direction, with influence that spread as far as any future vassal ever could. It was an above-standard hospital, the cream of the crop, and in this hospital it was an event as special as any before or after it to the people of the small-but-powerful empire that served Frieza.   
  
Queen Noyin Kageba-Bejita lay exhaustedly on the birthing table, flanked to either side by a concerned looking King Vegeta Bejita the Fifty-fourth and an equally concerned Nappa Kageba, Lower Marshall of House Kageba, Noyin`s younger brother. They were the only two male Saiyans present in the room at the time as a Talosian doctor backed up by three nurses had seen Noyin through a brutal 76 hour birth, which itself wasn`t abnormally long by Saiyan standards. The whining and crying of a newborn child could be heard at the foot of the table, along with the sound of a tail slapping repeatedly against the metallic surface.   
  
"[It`s a boy,]" the doctor reported while gently, lifting the child up. One of the nurses moved in fairly quickly and reached to the newborn`s belly, yanking off the umbilical cord from the child`s navel. Again, standard work for a newborn Saiyan child, the umbilical wasn`t fixed into place as on a human child, and Saiyan infants tended to start closing themselves off just over a week before birth. It was a complicated process.   
  
King Vegeta smiled as Noyin flopped her head back on the pillow provided at the edge of the table for her head. Her spikey, untamed hair scattered in all directions, setting forward for the most part, but still leaving a fairly lengthy mane that ran down her back when she stood. "[A son... An heir to the throne at last,]" Vegeta exclaimed in a hushed tone, watching as the doctor quickly made his way towards a machine labelled as a 'Newbirth Pod,' placing the tailed, screaming infant down inside only to pause briefly.   
  
"[Odd,]" he said to himself. "[What? Is there something wrong?]" Vegeta demanded, quickly leaving his wife`s side for a moment and stepping over to the pod, only to stare in abstract joy. The child was definately a boy alright, but that wasn`t just it. Not only was the tail of the infant already fuzzed over - a rarity among Saiyan children beneath two days old - the child was also holding something in his hand.   
  
A clot of blood. In Saiyan folklore, this was an especially good sign. It said that the child was a natural warrior even more so than the normal Saiyan. "[I see,]" Vegeta said with a nod. "[What?]" Noyin questioned, worriedly glancing past two of the nurses and right at the back of her husband`s head. "[Do you hear that?]" The doctor asked, glancing from Vegeta to Noyin. "[Yes...]" Nappa answered for his exhausted sister.   
  
"[That is the cry of a warrior who has already drawn blood,]" the doctor stated, drawing a large smirk off of Nappa and an exhausted smile from Noyin, who fell back again a moment later, chuckling to herself. Vegeta was still staring idly as the mechanitions of the newbirth pod began to go to work, already knowing the child`s name.   
  
"[Royal Prince Vegeta Bejita the Fifty-fifth, House Bejita, Heir to the Throne of Vegetasei,]" he stated in a tone that was little higher than a hushed whisper as the doctor turned to go check on the Queen.   
  
_ And quickly he`s subdued   
  
_ It had been a year and two months by the Saiyan calendar. Prince Vegeta stood mournfully on the observation deck of the Yah`Ktonos - the God Slayer - the royal transport/battleship. Vegetasei hovered in it`s orbit around the sun, just distant of the ship. He was young, but proud. Distress filled the boy`s empty looking eyes. In all of his life, he`d yet to see a man the size and stature of the High Marshall of House Kageba break down in tears. He`d never seen his father kill a trusted servant in anger, but today...   
  
Today he had seen his first funeral. The entire planet was drowned in mourning, the Queen was dead. Three days ago, she`d died of unknown causes, suffering a painful disease and finally yeilding to mortality`s whims on the first day of the second week of her illness. Queen Noyin, 'Yinja' as the people had affectionately come to know her through the past years of her co-reign with King Vegeta, had been granted the largest funeral ceremony in recorded Saiyan history. The entire starfleet of the Saiyan empire, space pods and capital vessels alike, had been withdrawn from missions in the empire and recalled to Vegetasei.   
  
The funeral had ended with Noyin`s own pod being shot off into the sun with her body and most personal posessions onboard. King Vegeta had carried her to the craft personally, and her brother Nappa had been the one to set the controls. And now he was standing on the private observation deck of the Yah`Ktonos, staring on as thousands of pods began lifting back off of the planet. They weren`t headed on missions though. It was a final show of respect, a spectacular display that was intended to light up the night sky, and the formation of the launches had been perfectly selected, carefully showing Noyin`s face smiling down to the people on the ground or on Gerin, one of the three moons that orbited Vegetasei outside of it`s two rings.   
  
The door balefully slid open after a moment, and Vegeta`s ears vaguely registed the sounds of boots tapping on the metallic surface of the floor as the door slid shut again.   
  
King Vegeta somberly rested a hand on the shoulder of his son - his only son - and giving a gentle squeeze that Prince Vegeta could feel even through the body armor he wore. "[Why did Mother have to die?]" The Prince asked lowly. "[I don`t know,]" the King answered just as lowly as the question he`d been asked. "[It will be hard to carry on,]" King Vegeta stated. "[I know,]" Prince Vegeta replied. "[But we will survive. We always have and Ossna knows we always will,]" the King added, using his free hand to motion out across the field of rising ships in the distance.   
  
"[This, my son, is what I will leave to you one day. We come from a strong blood line, and you... You my son, have a destiny,]" the King exclaimed, lifting his own spirits for all of a moment. "[Some day, you will be the one to lead our people, you will become one of the legendary Super Saiyans of old, just like the first Vegeta did over a thousand years ago.]"   
  
"[If you`re trying to comfort me Father, you should give up now,]" the Prince muttered. "[I know it`s hard, but we must live. Nappa is posted at the door, just call for him and he will come for you,]" King Vegeta explained. "[And you?]" Prince Vegeta asked.   
  
"[I have a small bit of business to take care of, finalizing the Saiyan Empire`s autonomy as allies for the Kold Empire. Rest well, Vegeta,]" the King ordered, removing his hand and walking to the exit of the room. The Prince didn`t bother speaking back, staring out at the planet as the door slid open and shut with a pair of swishes once more.   
  
It was an empty request. He wasn`t going to rest at all this night.   
  
_ Through constant pained disgrace  
The young boy learns their rules  
  
_ It was one Saiyan year later. Vegeta was older now, a bit scarred beneath the armor he presently wore but older, wiser and stronger nonetheless. Standing tall, flanked to either side by a bloodied Raditz and a bruised Nappa with a slightly dazed Kuwi behind him, Vegeta smirked. Thirty-two of Frieza`s supposed elite lay dead on the ground around them all, slaughtered like lambs.   
  
"Excellent showing," the ivory fleshed Aisu stated, sitting by in his hoverchair like always. "Bah, I could`ve done better," Dodoria replied. "I know Dodoria, but these _are_ weaker warriors we`re dealing with," Frieza responded. Vegeta`s blood boiled beneath the surface, but he said nothing. Indoctrination into Frieza`s service had worn the will out of him to openly display any sort of disrespect, ill manners or defiance against his - _temporary_ - liege.   
  
"I wouldn`t say Dodoria could`ve done much better, really," Zarbon stated smugly. "I mean really Dodoria," he began, glancing to the pinkish warrior. "You`re only one man, they _did_ have numbers on their side, that has to make up for _some_ of that weakness." Dodoria shrugged. "S`pose ya got a point there."   
  
Kuwi grinned, the first to walk around the rest of the group and kneel. Nappa, Vegeta and Raditz, in that order, followed suit. "Many thanks, Lord Frieza, may we leave now?" Kuwi asked.   
  
"Of course. And Kuwi, there`s a mission waiting for you, Fushetti. It needs to be done by the end of the week," Frieza stated. Kuwi nodded and stood up straight, leaving without another word. The three Saiyans remained kneeling though. "Waiting for something boys?" Frieza asked with audible amusement. "You did not order us to leave yet," the young Vegeta - who by Earth years was just eight and a half - stated respectfully. "Ah... You`re right. I didn`t," Frieza replied, carelessly levitating his chair up and floating over the group before leaving the room.   
  
Dodoria and Zarbon, both laughing out loud like idiots, followed him several moments later.   
  
"Does this mean we`ll have to stay like this?" Raditz asked. He was only six Earth months older than Vegeta. "It`d seem that way," Nappa replied with a grunt. "_Again_?" Raditz asked, gaping. "Shut up Raditz," Vegeta ordered with a sneer. "He may have us now but someday..."   
  
Raditz only nodded, flaring his nostrils. Nappa shook his head, he didn`t share the optimistic outlook of the boys he`d effectively adopted as his sons through the years. To add to this, he could see the fire of life slowly leaving the eyes of both of them. They were genuinely starting to look less and less Saiyan to him every day, the warrior traditions were leaving them. They were becoming more and more uncaring everytime they woke up, more so Vegeta than Raditz. Raditz was from the Third Class, he was used to hardship and he was very used to being looked down upon by those with Houses during the time before Vegetasei had been destroyed.   
  
Raditz was tougher, in a sense, than Nappa and Vegeta both. The boy was so used to hardship that had stopped effecting him in the way it ate away at his comrades, and both of them hated him for it sometimes.   
  
"This sucks."   
  
"Shut up Raditz."   
  
"But you agree that this sucks, right?"   
  
"Yes. Now shut up."   
  
_ With time the child draws in  
This whipping boy done wrong  
Deprived of all his thoughts  
The young man struggles on  
And on he`s known  
  
_ Turusei, a world once inhabited by a race of bull-men who prided themselves as warriors. Yesterday, they`d met true warriors. Warriors from another world long gone in and of itself, young, fast warriors who`s strength seemed to know little limits. The Turu had fought, yes. To their credit, they`d done damage to the three warriors.   
  
Yesterday, the Turu met true warriors. Today, they were all dead. Nappa gingerly kicked in the skull of the last of the final resistance group. He had been a far older creature, accompanied by the surviving women and children of the race. They`d attacked the three with nothing but themselves. They`d done nothing but died. Raditz was busy making a macabre pile as high as he could for his own vague amusement, but Nappa could see that Vegeta was sitting quietly on the body of a fallen Turu, resting most of his weight on the huge hump at the base of the creature`s neck, his feet on the sides of the creatures enormous horns.   
  
Nappa could see death in the youth`s eyes. By old Vegetasei years, the Prince was close to four years of age. By shorter Earth calendar years, that translated as eighteen years old.   
  
One thing that Nappa had come to despair over during the past years was how even Raditz seemed to finally be losing himself. Nappa felt he`d already gone down to the same pit that Vegeta was in, but Breh Raditz, originally a Third Class who fought his way to Elite at an incredibly young age, who would`ve likely forged a new House if Vegetasei still existed, had outlasted them all. Nappa damned, envied and praised the youth all at once with every glance he made.   
  
Now...   
  
Now Raditz was busily tossing bodies onto his enormous pile, counting them off as he went. Nappa and Raditz usually worked as a team, to this day. Raditz would take as many warriors down as he could, watch Nappa and sometimes Vegeta`s backs in a mission and generally leave the killing to the stronger warriors. While Raditz had chalked up a relatively impressive tally of some 65,000 kills throughout the years, Vegeta and Nappa each had numbers well into the millions. They were rapidly on the way to becoming the biggest mass murderers in Saiyan history.   
  
And neither gave a damn.   
  
Vegeta idly glanced up at the morbid pile which Raditz was setting up, doing so at such a painstaking rate, counting off each body. "What are you doing over there?" Vegeta questioned harshly. Raditz paused for only a moment, brushing aside the lengthy mess of black that he called his hair out of his way while glancing over his shoulder to Vegeta. "Making a fireworks display," Raditz said in an unusually deadened voice.   
  
"Well hurry up and blow it up, I`m calling in Frieza`s lackeys to finish the rest of the clean up," Vegeta replied, snapping at Raditz again. "I was actually finished already," Raditz replied, powering up a light ki blast and firing it off into the pile, which vanished into a rising tower of flame seconds later. "Whatever," Vegeta growled, tapping one of the buttons on his scouter.   
  
"This is headquarters, repo-" "Turusei has been cleared. Send in the clean up crew, we`ll be leaving for the next planet in _one_ hour," Vegeta stated bluntly, tapping the scouter offline a moment later before lifting the device off of it`s mount on his ear and holding it at his side.   
  
He still bore the unmistakable mark of a thick tail lashing across the opposite side of his face from several days earlier.   
  
_ A vow unto his own  
That never from this day  
His will they`ll take away  
  
_ It was another two Saiyan years later that Vegeta, now aged at roughly twenty eight in Earth years, sat by a fire on a half-emptied jungle planet, eating the limb of a local who was now lying dead beneath him. Nappa sat across from him, interested in the conversation playing out over their scouters.   
  
Both of the two Saiyans almost lurched at what the dying Raditz was saying after hearing of things called the 'Dragonballs.'   
  
"In the end, I`ll have the-last laugh anyway... Two more Saiyans are coming in one year, both of them are so... So much stronger than-me it`d make you puke. Have nice life, for the year that it`s left," Raditz muttered at whoever had just dealt him the mortal wound that was even now killing him. There was a squishing sound and a Namekian growl seconds later before the communications line snapped off and only static could be heard.   
  
"That fool," Vegeta growled, crushing the limb he was holding to a pulp like it was nothing. "Well... What now?" Nappa asked.   
  
"We`re going rogue and we`re going to Earth," Vegeta answered sternly, getting up and kicking the body he`d been sitting on straight into a nearby tree. "Ossna damned idiot," Vegeta growled. "We going to wish him back?" Nappa asked while getting to his feet. "Hell no. We`re going to wish ourselves to be immortal. Think about it Nappa, an eternity of battle, and one day... One day we`ll be able to take down even Frieza himself."   
  
"Just like Super Saiyans, eh?" Nappa asked, only half-joking. "Exactly. We won`t bend knee to that albino bastard any longer! Come on Nappa, we`ve a legend to make," Vegeta ordered, running towards his space pod with Nappa following behind.   
  
_ What I`ve felt, what I`ve known  
Never shined through in what I`ve shown  
Never be, never see  
Won`t see what might have been   
  
_ Nappa was dead now. It was an Earth year later and Vegeta stood, bloodied and half dead on a battlefield. He`d survived everything from a beam duel to getting immolated by a Spirit Bomb by the half-bred brat, a bald midget and a half-_dead_ bastard who should`ve been kneeling before him as a Third Class lowlife. How Kakarot - or 'Son Goku' as he forcibly insisted on being called - could even be alive after what Vegeta had heard through the scouter was unknown, how Kakarot was strong enough to smack Nappa down like an insect before Vegeta had killed him, and how Kakarot even possessed the courage, let alone the skill and power to come close to defeating Vegeta alone was too ludicrous to even comprehend.   
  
But it`d happened. The brat was lying over a rock, apparently unconcious. Vegeta had to give a begrudging respect to the little snot, even if he only looked fully Saiyan and wasn`t a full blood like his father, he`d put up a fairly good fight against insane odds. He`d have likely ranked as the second strongest Saiyan born in recent memory if Vegeta allowed him to live, or if he`d been born and raised on Vegetasei.   
  
But the brat had to die. Vegeta raised his bloodied, quarter-gloved hand at the runt, powering up while muttering out a half-prayer for the half-breed child calling himself Gohan. He was weak himself, and he had to finish the fight _now_ if he wanted to survive. His tail had been lopped off and his right eye had been blown out earlier in the battle, among other nasty things. "So long ru-_ARH!!!_" Vegeta screamed as he felt something sharp cleave through his armor like a hot knife through butter, cutting down into skin and taking out a clean cut through Vegeta`s spine and ribs, leaving a small diagonal trench of a cut straight into Vegeta`s body.   
  
Howling in agony, Vegeta fell to his knees. The attack hadn`t cut his spine, but _Ossna be damned_ it hurt.   
  
"Gngh... Vith`gin zatotoast..." Vegeta muttered in his native tongue of Saiyago, rising again several minutes later and glaring at the human who`d dare strike at him.   
  
"You`re going to pay for that."   
  
_ What I`ve felt, what I`ve known  
Never shined through in what I`ve shown  
Never free, never me  
  
_ Kuwi howled and died under a hail of ki as Vegeta laughed to himself. His sojourn to the planet Namek had proven worthwhile in at least on respect: He`d _finally_ wiped that annoying little grin off of Kuwi`s face! It was an ecstatic moment indeed, but soured in the prospect of facing Frieza at this point. Vegeta was no fool, a ruthless, scheming killer yes. A fool though? Hardly.   
  
Glaring off in the direction where he sensed Frieza`s ki emanating from, Vegeta scratched his cheek, detecting Dodoria`s own ki rapidly leaving his master`s side in pursuit of something or other.   
  
Vegeta smirked to himself, it was time to pay that fat bastard a visit. Lifting off of the ground with purpose fileld slowness, Vegeta quickly picked up the pace, bursting through the air with a small sonic boom to follow while he burned a white hot path through the green skies above planet Namek, heading straight on an intercept course for Dodoria.   
  
_ So I dub thee unforgiven   
  
_ "If _anyone_ is to kill Kakarot, it`s going to be _**me**_, not an overweight trash can that thinks it`s a baby doll," Vegeta exclaimed hotly as he landed next to the fallen Son Goku. He`d warned the idiot once before, just prior to when he`d left to go achieve Super Saiyan on his own, that the power would only speed up the heart disease that Goku had contracted.   
  
Piccolo made a snide comment over at Vegeta, who replied with nothing but a roll of the eyes. He`d come to understand this particular Namek over the past years, thinking of him as more of an acquaintance than about 99.999% of this planet`s population, who registered as two words to Vegeta: Cannon fodder.   
  
Lingering over the coughing, gagging - dying - Goku, Vegeta could only sneer at his rival. "I saw everything," the _former_ Prince stated. "You`re an idiot Kakarot. A total idiot. You knew your body was damaged, you knew that the brat, the triclops and the Namek could take these two out on their own and still you turned into a Super Saiyan to challenge them yourself."   
  
Goku wheezed in response, passing out a moment later. "If you live through your disease, Kakarot, I`ll kill you myself when we finally have our next battle. You are my only challenge, my only target," Vegeta stated. With that, he nonchalantly kicked Goku like a soccer ball, sending the dying warrior across the battlefield where Piccolo reached up and caught him by the back of his gi shirt, holding Goku aloft like nothing in one hand.   
  
"Someone take him home and give him his medicine," Vegeta ordered. Five minutes of idle banter later, Vegeta finally showed his trump card, blazing up into Super Saiyan for only the eighth time in his life and thoroughly stunning everyone on the battlefield.   
  
"Can androids feel fear?" He asked with a smirk.   
  
_ They dedicate their lives  
To running all of his  
He tries to please them all  
This bitter man he is  
  
_ It was just over four months later. Vegeta had just smacked down two of Bojack`s lackeys, and now he was zooming in on the head honcho himself. "Let`s end this game," Vegeta stated with deathly calm, even though was shouting the words out. The two exchanged ki for a brief moment and then moved into a fist fight, one which Vegeta immediately felt himself losing in.   
  
Three months ago, Vegeta had vowed to never fight again. Now, he was on another battlefield fighting for his life and the lives of a son from an alternate future and the only child of his own greatest rival, trading blows back and forth with a gigantic blue-green skinned gypsy of an alien with power that Vegeta almost felt envy for.   
  
Vegeta dove beneath a flurry of swift punches and delivered one of his own into Bojack`s muscled stomach, causing the loosely fitting vest the other wore to billow back for all of a split second before Vegeta felt an enormous elbow into the collar, throwing him back where two of Bojack`s lackeys, Zangya and Bido, were waiting. Both attacked him swiftly, throwing off a blurring stream of kicks and punches, but Vegeta held his own in typical royal fashion, pounding away at the two and forcing them on the defensive before slamming a blast into Bido`s stomach and grabbing Zangya by her hair, whipping the alien femme fatale right into her partner and knocking both of them back.   
  
And then Pujin appeared, kicking Vegeta in the gut and sending him crashing through the side of a building, where Pujin reappeared only to find himself on the recieving end of a Final Flash.   
  
Vegeta smirked with pride, watching the bloodied, dazed Pujin stand there in the middle of the blast crater, tattered and only barely able to stand alone. His smirk ended though, seeing as smirking was a hard action to perform when one was getting tossed around by punches and kicks and ki walls like a rag doll, only to become all but exhausted in a matter of seconds as Bido charged back into the fray, sapping the former/still Prince`s energy out with dozens upon dozens of 'strings.'   
  
"Shit," Vegeta muttered bitterly before passing out.   
  
_ Through out his life the same  
He`s battled constantly  
This fight he cannot win  
The tired man they see no longer cares  
That old man then prepares  
To die regretfully  
  
"It`s time,"_ Vegeta thought to himself, somberly remembering the events of his life that had led up to this singular moment. And at the end of it, he could only do one thing: He smiled. It was around six years after the day he`d fallen in battle against Bojack. He`d come full circle now, in a sense. He`d come into the world clutching a blood clot, crying the war song of a legendary warrior and hero waiting to happen.   
  
And now he would fullfill his own prophecy.   
  
_ "I do this for you... Trunks... Bulma..."_ Vegeta thought, the last vestages of hair leaving his now neanderthalesque eyebrows, his jaded eyes themselves gaining small but noticable pupils. _"Even you, Kakarot,"_ Vegeta thought with a smirk.   
  
"Time to die, Buu!" Vegeta shouted, gaining the creature`s attentions once more.   
  
_ That old man here is me...   
  
"Good-bye."   
  
You labeled me  
I label you  
  
_ And now as he stood before Lord Enma for the second time in his existence, Vegeta somberly refused to fight against the list of charges presented to him.   
  
"Over 27.18 billion lives directly taken, no less than sixteen worlds destroyed personally and countless other minor and major sins and crimes against life. What do you have to say for yourself Vegeta?" Enma asked, sickened at how much paperwork he could attribute to the person he was judging here and now.   
  
Vegeta only looked up at him with the eyes of someone who was once dead, now lived again even if it was only metaphorically. He`d died back there, on the Earth. One final sacrifice, the grand attonement, he had hoped. "May the punishment fit my crimes," Vegeta answered after a long silence, honestly glad for once in his life, that he`d never done anything to the people he`d killed other than causing their deaths. It was one thing to go to a Hell of Evil Warriors, it was another entirely to go to a Hell of Sick Perversions or a Hell of Sadistic Torture.   
  
Enma snorted briefly and shook his head. "Sympathy doesn`t work on me, punk."   
  
"I wasn`t asking for it," Vegeta replied dimly. "Hell of Evil Warriors, Aisu sector entrance. Let`s see him fight his way to where his people are," Enma judged, snickering to himself very lightly. Vegeta knew what was going to happen, he`d have to pound his way through Frieza`s people, probably Cell and the Cell Juniors too, but he didn`t care.   
  
He just had to get in one last jab at the person who effectively controlled where the dead went.   
  
"You of course realize that as time goes on, you`re going to be nothing but a silly little paperwork demon who nobody respects since even insects will become stronger than you?" Vegeta asked as the door slid open beneath his feet. Enma would have turned red with anger had he not been that way as it was. "Have a nice day beefy weakling!" Vegeta shouted, descending intentionally down through the floor and out of sight before Enma could alter his previous judgement.   
  
Hell was waiting now.   
  
Oh well. Vegeta had always said he wanted an eternity of battle, now, at least, he would finally have his wish. It was a shame it would come under these conditions, but such is the way of life for damned princes and their ilk.   
  
Landing solidly on the slick, mirror-like ice floor of the Aisu fortress, Vegeta immediately drew unusually heated glares from virtually everyone in the entire area. It was cold for a specific reason: The Aisu fortress in Hell was carved out of an ice mountain that bordered the ancient Frost Range in this region of Hell from the rest of the Hell of Evil Warriors.   
  
His boots dimly tapped on the glass-like surface of the floor, and the ethereally purple-and-blue gateway above him slid shut with a popping sound. Slowly beginning to raise his ki, Vegeta looked on at the dozen or so Aisu warriors who were crawling along the walls and ceiling like spiders, waiting for a moment to strike at the newly arrived Saiyan.   
  
"Who`s first?" Vegeta asked, just as the room filled with light, fueled by a golden flame and echoed by flashes of blue lightning.   
  
_ So I dub thee unforgiven...   
  


End...  
  


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_   
**Author`s Note:** And so ends the first 'season' of Generations... Expect the next parts to come sometime in a week or so, going to be taking a little break from writing Generations to work on my other pet project, New Age(check it out if you like Zoids), so I`ll also be pausing posting anything from Generations during that time. Yeah, I`m cruel... Leaving you people with a week long cliffhanger when I usually update every two or three days... *Bursts into evil, villainously insane laughter.*   
  
Anyhow, Sh33p out for now, see ya in a week!  
  



	13. Blurry

  
  
**Disclaimer:** Don`t own DBZ.  
  


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** Hybrid Theory: Generations  
**_ Blurry_   
  
  
  


"What in the heck was that?!" Hercule yelped as the combined weight of the Ox King, ChiChi, Juuhachigou and Marron came crashing into him, combined with the small fact that the airbus was tumbling around like a fly in a hurricane, knocking him out after a few seconds. Visible shockwaves roared through the air around the craft, anyone inside could hear the wings and the outer hull stressing, and if not for Juuhachigou, Roshi and Yamcha`s speedy reflexes, popping bolts off of the inner wall would have likely plowed into someone`s skull after the fifth shockwave. After a time though, and one loud sonic boom after another, things levelled off, and only a faint golden glow could be seen off to the west, to the far lower right of the mid-afternoon sun. It was 3:30 PM now, and those in the airbus were filled with questions.   
  
The shockwaves ended as abruptly as they`d begun. Marron was bawling her eyes out, ChiChi and Ox King both looked a little green and Roshi looked as though he`d spent the past fifteen minutes riding the Baby Ghamora he used to get around on from time to time. Hercule had almost passed out, Videl looked slightly dazed and everyone else but Yamcha and Juuhachigou were about the same or a little worse, with the last two looking somewhere between stunned and unphased. _"Why do I feel something bad just happened?"_ Bulma thought, giving herself the excuse to speak up.   
  
"What energy signatures can you guys detect?" She asked, glancing from Yamcha to Roshi, then over to Videl. "Don`t look at me, I can`t differentiate between anybody but Gohan`s and I think he`s concealing his," Videl stated. "What about you guys?" Bulma asked. Yamcha and Roshi didn`t answer. Juu shook her head and went about the task of calming Marron down.   
  
_ "I hate being right. I just hope it wasn`t Vegeta just now..."_ Bulma thought again, returning to the task of piloting. "We should get the Dragonballs together," Yamcha decided, unbuckling his seatbelt. "Everyone else, head to Capsule Corp and wait for us," he ordered, preparing to open the exit. "Videl, you coming?" He asked. Videl gave a nod. "Juu?"   
  
"I`m staying with Marron," she replied. "Master Roshi?" Yamcha asked. "I can`t fly on my own without pukin` my guts out, remember?" Roshi asked. "... Good point," Yamcha conceded. "Puar? Oolong?" He asked. "I`ll go," Puar stated. "Count me out," Oolong grumbled, only to find his ear grappled down by a pincer like claw and yanked wide open. "Don`t make me say it," Puar threatened. "_I am not going to go_!" Oolong yelled. "Bulma..."   
  
"Fine, fine," Bulma muttered. "Piggy!"   
  
"**_DAMN IT!_**" Oolong howled, throwing both hands over his rear. Even after more than twenty years, the pill Bulma had slipped him had yet to lose it`s effectiveness. "I`ll go, I`ll go! But don`t blame me if you guys`re holdin` your noses the whole way there and back!" He shouted. "Good," Puar stated before shapeshifting into a Dragon Radar. She`d become fairly adept at mimicking machinery over the years when Yamcha and she were still desert bandits, it paid to be able to become a high tech compass or even a GPS tracker unit when the two were desperately lost at times. Copying something as relatively primitive as a Dragon Radar(believe it or not, Dragon Radars weren`t _that_ complex, just stick a compacted specialized magnetic scanner into the frame of a stop watch and put a three zoom viewscreen on the top) wasn`t very hard for her.   
  
Yamcha calmly took Puar in hand and zoomed out on the Radar as far as he could while Videl and Oolong, who was latched onto her back, took the opposite exit on the side, making sure to be quick so as to not knock everyone senseless and suck them out of the airbus. ChiChi, despite her present daze, snapped to attention before Yamcha could finish exiting the vehicle though.   
  
"Don`t you dare steal her from my Gohan!" She yelled threateningly. Yamcha gave her the single most deadpanned, disbelieving look in all of history, then focused on Bulma. "When this is over, I`m going to have to have a very nice, _long_ talk with you, `kay?" He asked, falling out of the airbus and allowing the door to clang shut before Bulma could respond.   
  
Puar shifted back into cat form and latched herself onto Yamcha`s shoulder like she usually did during flights. "Sheesh, the things she probably says to ChiChi behind my back, even when I`m her best friend... That hasn`t smacked her with something yet..." He grumbled with a roll of the eyes. "Why do you still hang around her, anyway?" Puar asked. "Because I`m too much of a nice guy to just let her rot?" Yamcha asked sincerely before turning to face Videl, who was still piggybacking the shapeshifting pig named Oolong. "What direction first?" She asked.   
  
"That-a-way?" Yamcha replied, pointing behind Videl, to the North. "Here`s hoping none of them are under the sea like last time we needed them," he mused as an afterthought. "What are we waiting for then?" Videl asked. "Good question," Yamcha answered before taking off towards the North, Videl no more than a few paces behind.   
  
_ Everything's so blurry  
And everyone's so fake  
And everybody's so empty  
And everything is so messed up   
  
_ "Oh man," Krillin muttered, watching the explosion die down into a burning smoke cloud that stood hundreds of miles high, at _least_ five miles across. "Vegeta went out with one hell of a bang," Zangya commented, finally wiping the glare from her eyes. Piccolo was broodingly silent. "I just don`t believe it... Vegeta... How the heck did a bastard like _him_ go out with that kind of sacrifice?" Krillin asked. "You`re a Bhuddist, figure it out yourself," Piccolo muttered. "I kinda gave up my vows of being a monk and gave up on the beliefs in Bhudda and all that when I learned that God had effectively died," Krillin replied sardonically. "What a peachy outlook that has to be," Zangya replied.   
  
Piccolo shook his head. "Take these two," he ordered, handing Goten and Trunks over to Krillin, who handed Trunks off to Zangya so that he could toss Goten over his shoulder, which was about the same thing Zangya did, just a bit more cautious to avoid yanking her hair. "I`m going to see what happened," Piccolo stated. "Okay," Krillin replied. "And you shouldn`t keep quiet about this," Piccolo began. "You have to tell their families," he exclaimed.   
  
"'Their?'" Zangya asked. "I don`t know about Goku, but Gohan is dead. Buu killed him," Piccolo replied in a voice so monotone it barely even fit his gruff, quiet demeanor. "That`s what Vegeta said," he added. "What?!" Krillin and Zangya both gaped at the same instant. Piccolo didn`t bother hanging around, taking off towards the ever rising pillar of smoke and leaving an obviously shocked Zangya and Krillin behind.   
  
"That`s... That`s not right," Krillin muttered, wiping his eyes. "I held him on the battlefield after Vegeta when he was only five, it just isn`t right that he`d die before me," he growled. "I don`t like it either," Zangya muttered, a good bit more composed than Krillin but still obviously distressed. "How is it anyone could kill him though? He survived all that just to die against Buu..."   
  
"We`re up against a new kind of enemy this time," Zangya answered. "Come on, best not to dwell on anything right now," she stated, turning in the direction of Dende`s Look Out and blasting off, with a visibly upset Krillin not too far behind.   
  
_ Pre-occupied without you  
I cannot live at all  
My whole world surrounds you  
I stumble then I crawl   
  
_ Piccolo grimaced to himself, silently flying through the outer wall of the explosion, just in time to watch a hovering stone statue of Vegeta, frozen in a final pose of exhaustion, looking very un-Vegeta-like in the process, fall to the ground hundreds of feet below and shatter. The Namek shook his head bitterly, touching down at the center of the crater and staring at the shattered remains of Vegeta`s face.   
  
"Ashes to ashes," Piccolo mumbled, reaching down and scooping up the crumbled remains of Vegeta`s left eye. "Dust to dust," he added, crushing the small stone and emptying the dust into the faint wind that blew through the crater. "It looks as though Buu has been defeated. He may have regenerated from a normal hit but the way Vegeta blew him up..." He smirked, turning away from the pile of rubble and looking towards the walls of the crater. _"Gohan..."_ He thought.   
  
"Shi... Shit!" A shrill, familiar voice echoed through the hollows of the crater. Piccolo glanced unbelievingly over his shoulder to spot the diced remains of one villainous sorcerer laying in a pothole a dozen feet away, choking on dirt and half buried, the ground to it`s bottom half and it`s halved arm both stained red.   
  
"Babidee?" Piccolo uttered. "You`re _still_ alive?!" He yelled. "**_SOMEBODY HELP ME!!!_**" Babidee shrieked, recognizing Piccolo`s voice.   
  
"It`s pathetic, how can the universe kill a Kaioshin, a Dai Kaio, a Saiyan Prince and one of it`s greatest heroes yet leave a sick little bastard like you alive?" Piccolo asked. "No matter," he answered himself. "**_HELP!!!_**" Babidee screamed. "Oh I`ll help you alright," the Namek growled, holding up two fingers to his forehead. "Right to Hell that is... Makanko-What the?!" Piccolo interrupted himself, finally realizing he and Babidee weren`t alone as dozens, then hundreds of blobs of pink began to move off of the ground and take shape as miniature Majin Buus.   
  
"Shit!" Piccolo yelled, flaring up his aura and taking off in the direction of the Look Out at his top speed, utterly sickened at the sight of the miniature Majin Buu population grouping together in the shape of the original. "This is horrible!" He voiced. "Majin Buu is still alive, Vegeta died in vain!"   
  
"**_BUU!!!_**" Echoed all the way behind him.   
  
_ You could be my someone  
You could be my sea  
You know that I'll protect you  
From all of the obscene   
  
_ Buu flopped back down to the ground, howling with laughter while flailing it`s limbs to test itself out. Getting blasted to Buu-lets wasn`t a very pleasant experience to recover from, but Buu was still laughing his head off. And then a fairly annoying, wheezing voice interrupted his enthusiasm. A shame too, Vegeta`s last thoughts were probably that he`d killed Buu, but in truth he`d only succeeded in killing himself. Funny in an ironic sort of way to a creature that`d laugh at a child being hurled into a piranha tank after being drenched in blood.   
  
"Buu... Buh... Buu!" The voice demanded. "Hey Buu... Pu.. Put me back!" The voice, now identified to Buu as Babidee, demanded. "You should... Be able too. Hurry up and do it... Or I`ll die soon..." Babidee managed to wheeze. Buu smirked and stuck it`s tongue out. "**_DO IT OR I`LL SEAL YOU AWAY!!!_**" Babidee threatened. Buu came to attention very quickly at that, sheepishly grinning an apology before leaning forward, it`s head-tail arcing forward and aiming at Babidee before a pinkish beam bolted out across the sorcerer`s remaining body chunk, and Babidee gasped in relief as feeling returned to his severed arm and lower body, which popped back up on him as good as new.   
  
"Phew, thanks Buu," he said while getting to his feet and dusting himself off. "But you still screwed up! You allowed him to hurt me!" Babidee yelled, which only drew a cryptic smirk from Buu. "That green guy and those little twerps must pay!" Babidee decided, only to continue. "We`re not going to blow this planet up, we`re going to turn it into Hell on the Mortal Plane!" He exclaimed loudly, balling his tiny, wrinkled hands into fists. "Everyone will soon know and fear their Lord, Babidee!"   
  
_ I wonder what your doing  
Imagine where you are  
There's oceans in between us  
But that's not very far   
  
_ "Ow..." Goku groaned, struggling to lift his sore face out of the dirt. "Shouldn`t have turned my - gngh - back on him," he thought aloud, focusing himself up to one knee with his hand on the back of his head. "At least he didn`t kill me, wouldn`t be very nice to get forced into my next life," he mused, standing up straight with a wobble, noticing that the Senzu pouch was now laying emptily on the ground. Feeling out for energy signatures, Goku grimaced deeply. _"I can feel Buu`s ki, but not Vegeta`s. He really must have gone off thinking he could take Buu out himself and if he failed when he was only a bit weaker than me..."   
  
_ Goku grimaced even deeper, feeling his heart clench up. It never had really finished healing from the disease, which he`d suffered from as a result of cumulative damage he`d endured over the years. _"Can`t feel Gohan`s ki either. Shit,"_ Goku thought. "What happened?" He asked, shooting a glance to his right. _"Piccolo, Krillin and Zangya are alive again... I guess that means Dabura is dead too,"_ Goku thought. _"I`ll be able to get some answers from them, they should know what`s going on..."   
  
_ Tapping two fingers to his forehead and concentrating, Goku phased out of existence in one place, and phased back into existence in another, fairly different place from the battered desert battlefield he`d waged a two man war with Vegeta on. An elaborate, arabic looking palace, the size of any stately mansion, surrounded by pristine, unmarred white tiling for close to a half a kilometer all around, six rows of trees and four secondary towers.   
  
"How long `til the kids wake up?" Krillin asked. "Probably an hour," Piccolo answered. "I still don`t believe it," Zangya said. "Yeah, I feel pretty bad about Vegeta, even if he was evil... But Gohan? Sheesh... I thought for sure that kid was gonna outlive all of us," Krillin replied. "Hey Dende... Er, Kami, whichever, mind if we bring our families up here? Or would that be unfair to save only our families?" Krillin asked.   
  
"Any thoughts?" Dende asked, glancing to Piccolo. "Trust in your own judgement," the other answered. "Alright, I don`t mind," Dende stated. "Thanks Dende, I`ll go call `em... You guys _do_ have a phone, right?"   
  
"It`s God`s Palace, Krillin. If it exists and the creator of it was worth his or her salt, you`ll probably find it here," Zangya mumbled. "We have a phone, it`s just deep inside, want me to show you to it?" Dende offered. "If you would," Krillin answered. "Eh?" Piccolo voiced, glancing towards his left. "Hey, that ki!" Krillin mumbled. Zangya barely seemed phased.   
  
"Glad to see you three are alright," Goku stated as he materialized into view, looking beaten beyond belief but still relatively cheerful nonetheless. "It`s Goku! He`s alive!" Krillin shouted with a smile. Zangya seemed less than enthused and Piccolo was somewhere in between. "I came to see what happened," Goku explained. "Same here," Krillin replied. "I`ll heal you," Dende interrupted, rushing forward.   
  
_ Can you take it all away  
Can you take it all away  
When ya shoved it in my face  
Explain again to me   
  
_ Time passed. Things were explained, clothing replaced and injuries undone. By then though, Goku looked relatively sickened despite himself. "So Gohan`s dead, huh?" He asked, finally managing to absorb it without sheepishly laughing as if Krillin was telling him a joke. It was a deeply troubling thought to Goku that his son was basically dead all because he had wanted one last battle with Vegeta. "Kaioshin and Vegeta too," Piccolo replied. "Damn," Goku said to himself. "I just can`t believe it. Gohan`s survived things that`d kill _me_, and Vegeta? I always thought he was just too stubborn to die," he stated. "Yeah, I know what you mean," Krillin replied, plopping down on the steps next to Goku.   
  
"At least Goten survived," he pointed out. Goku shook his head. "If Buu is strong enough to kill Gohan and Vegeta both, I doubt Goten will live to see his next birthday," Goku said with a hint of anger in his voice. "Gee, such confidence," Zangya grumbled. "If we do nothing and just _let_ Buu have his way, then everything in the universe will be killed," she stated grimly. "Agreed," Piccolo nodded.   
  
"But you being here is a sliver of hope for us," Krillin said, turning to Goku with a nod. "You`re here for a day, right? That should be enough time to do _something_," Krillin suggested. "I don`t think I could beat him," Goku replied. "In fact, I know I probably can`t," he added. "Huh?!" Krillin yelped. "I`m only a little stronger than Gohan was, and Vegeta was almost exactly as strong as me," Goku explained. "I`m sorry but I don`t think I`d stand much of a chance."   
  
"Oh..." Krillin mumbled. "If Vegeta or Gohan hadn`t died, _then_ we`d have a chance..."   
  
"Ganging up on him wouldn`t work, he`s too strong," Piccolo stated. "That`s not what I meant, I`m talking about Fusion," Goku replied. "Eh?" Zangya asked. "That`s a Natamoru technique," Dende pointed out with a raised brow. "You know it too, huh?" Goku asked with a smirk. Dende gave a nod. "It`s a technique where two warriors, about the same strength and size, can use. Warrior Nameks used to use it before the Cataclysms when the knowledge was wiped out," Dende explained. "Exactly, the joined warrior has incredible power, a perfect combination of whatever two fighters perform the Fusion," Goku added. "It took me a week to learn it though, and I couldn`t fuse with either Natamoru, they were too short and weak."   
  
"Maybe you could fuse with Gohan or Vegeta in the Afterlife?" Krillin suggested. "Not likely," Zangya cut him off. "Agreed. Goku can`t return again, even fused. Besides, Vegeta`s not in the Afterlife," Piccolo stated grimly. "He was _that_ evil?" Krillin gaped. "Worse," Piccolo replied.   
  
"What about Trunks and Goten? They`re about the same size, virtually the same power level," Mister Popo interrupted, motioning towards the inside of the Palace. Everyone stared at the small genie, dumbfounded.   
  
And then Goku finally spoke. "That might actually work... Good idea Popo," he said with a sheepish grin. "Piccolo, I`m going to train Goten and Trunks as long as I can, but I`ll need you to finish it once I`m gone," Goku said. "Alright," Piccolo shrugged. "We might actually stand a cold snowball`s chance in Hell now," Zangya mused. "We might, but the rest of humanity won`t. It seems like it`ll take a lot of time to teach them Fusion, a lot of people are going to die during that and because of Cell, we won`t be able to wish at least a tenth of them back," Piccolo stated. "The entire planet might even be destroyed, are you willing to take that chance?"   
  
Goku somberly nodded. "It`s a bad possibility but it`s all we`ve got."   
  
"Well... I`ll go get everyone and bring them up here," Krillin said with a shake of the head. "Be careful, we don`t know where Buu is headed if he`s left the crater by now," Piccolo advised. "I will. Why`d the sky get so dark all of a sudden?" Krillin asked. "Crap," Piccolo growled. "They`re going to try and resurrect all of the people Vegeta killed today," Zangya explained. "If they use them, we won`t be able to make another wish for a whole year!" Dende warned.   
  
"I`ll try to stop them," Goku said. "Hopefully they won`t have used everything up by the time I get there..."   
  
"Track Yamcha`s ki, it`s easier than Bulma or ChiChi`s," Krillin advised ahead of time. Even after six years of no contact between them, he knew who Goku would think of first during a teleport. "Thanks," Goku said, vanishing in front of them.   
  
_ Can you take it all away  
Can you take it all away  
When ya shoved it my face  
  
_** "NAME THY WISH, AND IT SHALL BE GRANTED!" **  
  
"Damn, that thing`s big," Videl commented, toweling the mud off of her face. She, Yamcha, Puar and Oolong had set a new record for getting the Dragonballs: Three hours, the second fastest time in all history of _any_ set of Dragonballs, after only the record set by Mister Popo a little over a decade earlier during the battle between Goku and Frieza. "Yep," Ox King muttered from beside her, craning even his large head back to stare up at the face of the enormous beast before them. His cap fell off moments later but he was literally too astonished to notice.   
  
"Very big," Videl added, almost falling over in her effort to look up at the creature. It was well worth the effort of battling a dinosaur, rummaging through a forest, flash freezing and then flash baking her senses out of whack, diving into quick sand and wading through mud and frigid water loaded with insects, just to see the thing once. Up ahead of her, Bulma and Yamcha were busy debating on the wish to be made.   
  
"Alright, revive all the people Vegeta killed today?" Bulma asked. Yamcha shook his head. "No, there are also people who might`ve died when Gohan made his big attack, or when Goku and Vegeta were fighting, or because of whatever else might have happened," he replied. "Alright, revive all the people who`ve died today?" Bulma asked. "Except the evil ones," Yamcha corrected. "That`ll work," Bulma agreed.   
  
"Who`s gonna make the wish now?" Bulma asked. "You do it," Yamcha answered. "No, you," Bulma snorted. "Fine, fine..." Yamcha grumbled, looking up at the dragon and taking a deep breath only to break into a coughing fit. He was still covered in mud and sand, not to mention drenched, hot and cold at the same time and he stank of dinosaur breath. "You okay?" Bulma asked. "Yeah," Yamcha said between coughs, finally getting control and spitting out a wad of grass and dirt, mixed with a little bit of bile and other nasty internal fluids, onto the ground. "Much better... Anyway..."   
  
"We`re ready to name our first wish!" Yamcha yelled. **"FINALLY,"** Shenron replied with a voice that boomed and echoed for miles around. "Revive everyone who has died today - but leave out the evil ones!" Yamcha ordered. _"IT SHALL BE DONE,"_ the Dragon answered, it`s crimson eyes a glow for several seconds before it spoke again. _"YOUR WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED. NAME THY SECOND WISH!"_ It ordered loudly.   
  
"_Wait_!" A new voice yelled, right as the person who owned it materialized in front of Yamcha. "... You _are_ Yamcha, right?" Goku asked in disbelief at the mud ball in front of him. "Long story," Yamcha replied with a shrug. "Goku!" Bulma yelled. "Where`ve you been, what`s been going on?!" She demanded, right as ChiChi forcibly cleared a path through everyone and planted two things on Goku`s face. The first was a quick kiss on the lips, the second was a smack upside the head loud enough to be heard a block away. "Where are Gohan and Goten?!" She demanded. "I`ll... Explain that later," Goku replied. "Hey Dende! They made a wish already!" Goku shouted up into the air.   
  
_ "That means they can`t be used for another four months..."_ A new voice intruded, audible not to the ears, but the heart. "Crap..." Goku grumbled, slapping his forehead. "Well... Hey Shen`!" Goku yelled up at the Dragon. **"GOKU?"** It asked. "Yeah, that`s all for now, thanks! See you again!" He yelled in reply. **"VERY WELL. FAREWELL!"** Shenron said, suddenly vanishing as quickly as it had appeared, leaving the Dragonballs to lift up off of the ground and vanish in different directions.   
  
"Just... Like... That... Eheh... Heeee..." Videl fell over.   
  
"Dende! Since everyone`s already here, tell Krillin I`ll bring them all up to the palace!" Goku shouted again, glancing back down at Yamcha and the downed Videl. "Just as soon as you two get the muck off..."   
  
_ "See you then,"_ Dende called out before the voice faded out.   
  
_ Everyone is changing  
There's noone left that's real  
To make up your ending  
And let me know just how you feel   
  
_ Kibito stood alone on the slanted wall of the blasted out warzone that had been the battleground between Majin Buu and any, and all challengers. He was absolutely dumbfounded as well. "What in the world just happened? I could swear I was in front of Enma just five seconds ago," he asked himself, looking around. "Where is Master Kaioshin?" He asked, shooting a glance to his right before turning in that direction and shooting off from the ground. _"Hold on Kaioshin,"_ Kibito thought as he flew towards the ever dropping ki of his former protege-turned-boss.   
  
  
As for Shin? He was dizzily staggering around in the forested area he`d been thrown in by Vegeta`s power up, bloodied and dying with every step. How he was even walking was anyone`s guess, it could likely be attributed to the fact that Shin had the kind of will that defied even the laws of physics and paralysis. Stumbling along, he tripped over a small stone and fell, leaving a purple slick on a rock his cheek had the misfortune of scraping against before lying still as a dead body on the ground. _"Gohan`s alive, but only just barely. Even if it kills me, I **have** to try and heal him,"_ Shin though, struggling onward and dragging himself along by his hands alone, leaving behind blood and bits of torn, burnt cloth from his coat, calculating that he had just enough energy left in him to crawl along to Gohan and cast a healing spell.   
  
"Master Kaioshin!" A voice sounded from above. Shin`s ears would`ve picked up on it, had they not been blown out somewhere during the past few hours since Buu had gotten loose. "Hang on," the voice said as two large hands locked down across his back and head. _"Definately... About to die,"_ Shin thought to himself. And then he felt an extreme warmth pulse through his body, he felt his senses return, he gained the feeling in his lower legs back and his vision unblurred and shifted back to normal. "What?!" He yelped with a wheeze, feeling virtually _all_ of the damage to his body vanish in a matter of seconds. Turning to his side, he thought he`d seen a ghost.   
  
"**_KIBITO?!_**" Shin yelped in shock. "I saw you die though!" He exclaimed, jaw practically unhinged. Kibito smirked and shook his head. "I _know_ I was dead, but I`m not anymore," the other god shrugged. "Well... It`s good that you`re back Kibito, there`s a lot you`ve missed," Shin said, wiping his brow and getting to his feet, only to snap his attention in the direction he`d been crawling in. "Come on, Gohan`s dying!" Shin exclaimed, launching off of the ground. "What?!" Kibito faulted, jumping after him.   
  
"Can you feel that Kibito?" Shin asked as he and Kibito rocketed towards the fading ki in the distance. "That massive ki in the distance?" Kibito asked. "That`s Buu."   
  
"Our worst fears have been realized then. No one is safe now," Kibito muttered grimly. "It`s not too hopeless," Shin began. "There`s a glimmer of light lining the dark cloud of the times ahead of us, Kibito," the smaller god stated. "Does it have to do with Gohan?" Kibito asked. "Yes. If we can boost his power up higher, he might be able to defeat Buu. It`s a long shot, but it`s all we`ve got," the Kaioshin replied. "Do you mean what I think you mean?" Kibito asked with a frown. "You didn`t see those Saiyans, Kibito, you can`t imagine what they`re capable of."   
  
"Still," Kibito retorted. "Still nothing," Shin shot back. "Well... I think he`s down there, right... **_THERE!_**" Kibito yelled, pointing towards a fallen figure clad in a torn up, burnt black-and-white douji lying in the middle of an opening in the trees. Upon landing, Kibito had to hold back the urge to vomit at the sight in front of him. The youth had been banged up _very_ badly. "He`s at least as injured as you were when I found you," Kibito stated. "Heal him and restore his energy when we get back to my planet," Kaioshin ordered, kneeling down next to the fallen teen.   
  
"Don`t tell me we`re taking him to that sacred world... Not even the current Kaios and the other Dai Kaio have been there!" Kibito exclaimed with surprise in his voice. "That`s right, now move it or he`ll die!" Kaioshin reprimanded sharply. "Yes... Sir," Kibito replied, just as the trio vanished in a ball of orange-and-gold light.   
  
_ Cause I am lost without you  
I cannot live at all  
My whole world surrounds you  
I stumble then I crawl  
  
_ "Bulma, aren`t your parents coming?" Krillin asked, dimly scratching the side of his head while rocking Marron in one arm. "No, they wanted to stay with the animals," Bulma replied. "They`re not too worried about dying because of the Dragonballs," she said with a hint of annoyance in her voice. "We could`ve brought Tien, Chaozu and Lunch if we knew where in the heck they were," Krillin grumbled. "I guess so," Goku said with a shrug. "Knowing Tien, I doubt he`d come though."   
  
"What I want to know is... Where are Goten and Gohan?" ChiChi asked. "And Trunks and Vegeta," Bulma added, both of the women looking around. Krillin facefaulted. Goku, though somber, was far more collected about the matter. "We were going to tell you anyways..." He began with a shake of the head, avoiding any eye contact with ChiChi for the duration. "Goten and Trunks are fine. Gohan and Vegeta... Are both dead. Majin Buu killed them."   
  
ChiChi went wide eyed for all of five seconds before shedding a solitary tear and passing out sideways. Bulma winced briefly and then broke into a screaming fit, falling to her knees in shock. "ChiChi..." Goku said to himself while walking forward and standing next to Ox King, who`d managed to catch his unconcious daughter before she could finish hitting the floor. Yamcha was busy trying to console Bulma, Puar and Oolong, along with Master Roshi, were standing off to the side alone, wearing grimaces. Hercule looked outright shellshocked and Videl...   
  
_ "... Gohan..."   
  
_ Well... She was basically handling things better than ChiChi and Bulma. Mainly since she was too shocked to cry and too anxious to pass out. Juu looked relatively saddened, about as saddened as her apathetic expression could or would show. _"Shit,"_ Videl thought, making it a point to lean against one of the pillars lining the entrance to the palace. It was her effort to remain standing, and she failed pretty valiantly at it, sliding down to a seated posture on the steps next to Zangya, who offered only a comforting hand on the shoulder to try and help calm her down. The orange haired woman could definately understand Videl`s reaction, she thought of the girl as a younger, human version of herself at times.   
  
"He`s not dead," Videl thought aloud in disbelief. "He can`t be." Zangya glanced over at Hercule, who`d walked over and laid a hand on the back of his daughter`s head. "Just let it out Vidi`," the older man suggested in a voice that was softer than you`d expect given how most people stereotyped him. The nickname wasn`t something Videl was used to, her father rarely called her by it, even when she was a child. "Just let it all out..."   
  
"_No_," Videl replied. "If he was dead, I`d _know_ it," she growled. Zangya exchanged a glance with Hercule. Both were thinking the same word at Videl`s comments: Denial. Plain and simple.   
  
**_ "People of the Earth, can you hear me?"_** A new voice, shrill, annoying and spiteful sounded. **_"My name is Babidee, and I am a sorcerer. You can`t see me, because I`m talking to you through your hearts."   
  
_** At this, a new image popped into the eyes of anyone who was blinking or had their eyes shut without being asleep or unconcious. _**"I`m so sorry to tell you this, since you`ve been living in peace these past few years, but because of three idiots, something awful happened today. I`m looking for those fools,"**_ Babidee exclaimed, just as the image panned to show himself standing next to a fat pink ogre of a creature, atop a cliff outside of a medium-sized city somewhere out West.   
  
**_ "Close your eyes, you`ll see them."   
  
_** "What`s this supposed to be?" Goku demanded, closing his eyes to see an image of Trunks, Goten and Piccolo amid a black background. Piccolo growled out some profane word or another as Babidee switched visuals back to himself. _**"They should know themselves,"**_ he stated with a cheshire grin. _**"If they don`t come..."   
  
"But first, let me introduce myself. I am the terrifying sorcerer, Babidee. Also known as your new master,"**_ Babidee stated, showing himself making peace signs at the world. _**"This is my slave, the even more terrifying Buu!"**_ Babidee exclaimed, showing an image of Buu thrusting it`s hand into the air and shouting it`s own name. _**"He`s very strong, no one can beat him,"**_ Babidee bragged. **_"And for a little demonstration... See this city? This is what`s going to happen to EVERY city on this planet if those fools don`t show themselves!"_** Babidee yelled, pointing to the city over the edge of the cliff.   
  
"**_NO!!!_**" Piccolo yelled. **_"I don`t like to ramble on too much, so I`ll just have Buu kill the people quickly. Buu?"_** Babidee ordered. The next minute passed in horrifying slow motion as men, women, children and animals floated up and out of the city, only to be turned into candy and vacuumed out of the air by Buu, who made it a point to chew slowly before opening his mouth and grinding his teeth together.   
  
"Oh no..." Goku muttered. **_"That`s what`ll happen to everyone unless those three come forward. Of course this city is useless now, so Buu will just have to clean up his mess,"_** Babidee stated, leering up at Buu with a smirk. _**"Get rid of it Buu, not too hard though, or you`ll destroy the whole planet,"**_ Babidee ordered. Buu nodded enthusiastically and craned it`s head back, sucking in air until it`s already enormous body was the size of a small house, then lunging forward and spitting all of the air out, sweeping across the city several times.   
  
_** "Whoops! I guess it`s too dusty now, eh?"**_ Babidee asked with a snicker. **_"I`ll tell you one more time: It`s him, him and him,"_** Babidee explained, showing three more images, first of Piccolo, then Trunks, then Goten. **_"Good. Now, tell me where those three are unless you want to be turned into candy and eaten by Buu, and by the way: I`ll be killing all of the Earthlings in five days if these three don`t step forward now."   
  
_** Piccolo grit his teeth together hard enough to pop his jawbone several times, growling ferally all the while. _**"Oh, and if you want to talk to me, call to me mentally and concentrate a bit. I really hope you`ll contact me,"**_ Babidee smiled. **_"Oh! I`ve got one already, let`s see, shall we? Go ahead,"_** he ordered. _"Uh, yeah, I work at the Budoukai, those three were would-be contestants named uh... Ma Junior, Trunks Briefs and Son Goten,"_ the voice stated. **_"Names don`t help, tell me where they live."   
  
_** "You want their addresses? I can`t do that!" The voice exclaimed. _**"Their names don`t do any good,"**_ Babidee growled, right as the voice screamed in agony and the sound of a bloody explosion filled the minds of anyone listening. "I`m very busy, so don`t send me useless information or you`ll end up like him. It`s time for me to destroy some more cities now," Babidee exclaimed, hopping on Buu`s back as the visual panned out like a commercial to show him sitting on Buu`s back.   
  
**_ "Who knows? Maybe you`ll be next? And just so you know, hiding won`t do any good. I`m going to blow the planet to bits. I`m waiting for your information..."   
  
_** The message ended as abruptly as it`d come.   
  
"That son of a bitch!" Piccolo howled in a rage. Dende shook his head briefly. "I`m going down there, we don`t need anymore victims," Piccolo decided only to be stopped by Goku. "If you go, who`s going to teach Goten and Trunks Fusion when I`m gone?" Goku demanded. "Besides, he`s going to blow up the planet anyway and we can bring all those killed back with the Dragonballs. "I... Understand," Piccolo growled, forcing himself to calm down.   
br>_"Well... I`ve been quiet long enough, may as well try to help out now since I`m the Kami and all..."_ Dende thought to himself, quietly willing himself enough resolve to try and speak clearly. "Have some hope Piccolo," Dende ordered. "Hope? How the hell can you hope right now?" Piccolo asked, lashing out verbally. Dende was unphased. "Hope is the single most powerful weapon you can have against a tyrant like Babidee. Hope is the most powerful weapon anywhere, it can see you through starvation, death, pain, suffering beyond words and battles with impossible odds. All you need is hope, Piccolo," the young god stated clearly.   
  
Piccolo snorted and shook his head. "Idealistic kid," he growled, storming past the group and towards the edge of the Look Out, intent on at least trying to gain a bit of time on his own. "Nice speech," Goku acknowledged with a nod, lifting ChiChi up and glancing over to Bulma, who seemed a bit lightened. "Thanks," Dende replied.   
  
His speech had more than effected at least one person in the current population of the Look Out. Hercule quietly stood up from Videl, who was trying to keep herself calm at the moment, leaving Zangya to keep his daughter from going nuts. Stepping over towards the Ox King - the one he guessed had the presence of mind to bring along some Capsules - and tapping the larger man on the shoulder. Ox King turned and looked down at him. "Eh?"   
  
"Got any Capsule planes?" Hercule asked. "An old one, why?" Ox answered. "Because I`m goin` down there," Hercule answered. "You can`t be serious," Yamcha cut in. "The people still worship me prob`ly twice as much as they do any religious idol," Hercule replied. "Like the little guy said, all ya need is hope and _someone_ has to give the people hope. If I can do that..." He shrugged.   
  
Yamcha stared blankly in utter disbelief. Ox King gave an assertive nod and reached into his pocket removing a small light blue capsule and handing it to Hercule. "Good luck Satan," he stated. "Yeah, keep an eye on Videl for me, will ya?" Hercule asked. Ox King gave another nod, an understanding one at that, and stepped back, followed by Yamcha. Videl only offered her father a quiet wave, she`d overheard him and didn`t feel any point in objecting to his decision.   
  
"See ya Dad," she whispered under her breath, leaning forward and resting her head in her hands. "He`ll be alright," Zangya offered. "A head that thick? Come on, it`d take an eternity to crack," she stated. "Not funny Zangya," Videl replied.   
  
There was a poofing sound and Hercule climbed into a small, obsolescent looking aircraft, taking off from the Look Out and heading towards the Earth below.   
  
_ You could be my someone  
You could be my sea  
You know that I will save you  
From all of the unclean  
I wonder what your doing  
I wonder where you are  
  
"Gohan... Now Dad`s gone too. Where are you anyway?"_ Videl wondered. _"I guess I`m all alone now... Well, Dende and Zangya are here so... Damn it, why`d you have to go without me? Remind me to kill you when you get back... After I hug and kiss the daylights out of you,"_ she thought, as if she`d actually send a message to him to do just that. Videl had experienced having a crush on Gohan for roughly four years now, five tops. She was more than willing to admit it if he showed up now, death had a funny way of unblocking feelings that should have been said sooner.   
  
_ "I wonder if you feel the same? Hell, I wonder if you`re even alive..."   
  
_ Zangya gave Videl one last, fairly sisterly hug around the shoulders and stood up, nodding to Yamcha. "I`ll be inside," she said. "Same," Yamcha replied with a grimace, while the Ox King sat himself down next to Videl. "It`s gonna be one heck of a long day," the older man grumbled towards Master Roshi, who was standing by Piccolo as if trying to give counsel to the Namekian warrior.   
  
_ There's oceans in between us  
But that's not very far   
  
_ Gohan groaned. He was alive - or so he thought - and for the most part, he seemed uninjured. Given what Piccolo and Krillin said though, he was expecting to be standing in the middle of a long line of mumbling, glowing sugar puffs floating all of two feet off of the ground. Rather than that, he was greeted with the view of a purple skyline, reminiscent of the Earth`s sky at twilight. There were seven stars visible off in the distance, along with a faded gray line that ran for Kami-knows-how-long. From what he could see, orange hewed the sky at the horizon in all directions, and what looked like an endlessly wide yellow cloud filled his sight every few minutes.   
  
Another thing he noticed was that he was about four times heavier. Not that it was a strain or anything, Gohan`s body had gotten so thoroughly adjusted to extreme cases of normal-low-no-extreme gravity in his youth that it had yet to wear off on him despite some six years of no such conditions. "Am I dead?" Gohan asked himself, feeling a bit detached and almost disappointed to an extent. He`d expected to be confronted by an extremely large, flashy looking palace in the clouds, or at the least an oversized hulk of a figure he could probably claim to be distantly related to. It was a little known fact that during his youth, Enma had been quite the ladies` man - divine, immortal and mortal alike. He had at least thirty or so groups of descendants and Gyuu Mao`s family - or the Ox King as he preferred to be called(something about 'True Names' and ancient curses, he never explained it in depth and often summarized it as "Gohan just had to show me that dang statue...")- was one of them. It was all traceable to Enma having taken the form of a mortal man long enough to impregnate a woman by the name of Gyuu Pawl, who was then lost of the memory and made to think she`d immaculately concieved her son, the founder of the Gyuu Dynasty of the Uten Peninsula, one of the major powers of the world right up into the World Dynasty took effect.   
  
The old kingdom was still around, it`d just had a name change and Ox King was on the way to retirement, guiding it towards a democracy since he didn`t trust Goku to be a king, didn`t want ChiChi to shoulder the burden of being a queen and knew Gohan would turn it down while Goten wouldn`t even know what to do.   
  
This of course, was the last thing on the teen`s mind as he leaned himself up on rubbery feeling elbows. It seemed as though he hadn`t moved in over a week, and he _knew_ what that was like, part of Piccolo`s early meditation training meant Gohan had to spend at least one week of every month doing nothing but meditating, not moving, barely breathing, and _no_ eating. "Good work Kibito, he`s awake," a new voice interjected while Gohan heedlessly stared out over the landscape. Reminded him a lot of home, just a little less quaint and a lot more peaceful. That was probably due to the fact that Goten and Trunks weren`t running around blowing up the scenery by accident during their spy games, but still.   
  
"Did I die?" Gohan asked, turning around and wobbling back up to his feet to face the two gods, who stood all of a yard away. "Thankfully, no. Kibito and I were able to get you here in time and restore you to proper health, unfortunately though, Kibito was unable to restore you perfectly. Don`t worry, it just means you`ll probably be walking stiff legged and cramped for a few minutes," Shin explained calmly. "Ah... Thanks?" Gohan asked. "Don`t mention it," Shin replied. "What is this place anyway? Reminds me a lot of home... Just... No civilization," Gohan sheepishly asked, shaking either leg out with every few seconds.   
  
"This... Is Kaioshin-kai, the top level of Heaven, the Holiest of Holy Places, the-" "He get`s the point Kibito," Shin cut his assistant off once he noticed the look Gohan had on his face. "You are the first mortal to be allowed onto this planet since the Grand Council`s last meeting was hosted here, over a billion years past, as you can tell: It`s a rare privelege. Even rarer that you`re actually alive to do so," Shin exclaimed. "Uhm... That`s a good thing, right?" Gohan asked skeptically.   
  
"Yes. Especially given just why you`re here..."   
  
"I still disagree with this," Kibito interjected sourly. "It doesn`t matter what your personal oppinion is Kibito, the universe is at stake right now, anything else can take a back seat," Shin replied before Gohan rejoined the conversation. "And why am I here?" He asked.   
  
"Follow me for the answer," Shin stated cryptically before taking off towards the direction Gohan assumed to be the South. Kibito wasn`t more than a step behind. Gohan barely had any clue as to what in the blue blazes was going on, but powering up enough that a slightly grayed effect to the aura just around him, blasting off from the ground after the two a moment later only to find himself in new clothes. It hadn`t even been a flash of light, of a moment of pause and he was in new clothing. It was similar to what Kibito and Shin wore, though the shoulder pad section seemed a bit broader and the shoulders of his shirt weren`t frilled like Shin`s. He also noticed the fact he had two small weights attached to each ear.   
  
Kibito smirked back at the teen and turned ahead, only to look back in surprised embarrassment a moment later.   
  
"Clip-on ear rings?!" Gohan asked in surprise. "You guys are wearing clip-ons?!"   
  
"Name a needle in the universe that`s sharp and strong enough to pierce the flesh of gods," Shin cut in. Gohan blinked. "That makes sense..." He mumbled to himself before tucking the two ear rings into his jacket with a shrug. "So... Care to explain this to me now?" Gohan asked while flying up to a point that he was shoulder to shoulder with the much larger Kibito. "We`re taking you to what very well may prove to be the ultimate weapon in the coming fight against Majin Buu..."   
  
"The Zet Sword," Kibito finished. "Go on," Gohan ordered more than requested. "The sword has been locked firmly on the top of a mile high stone pillar on the South Pole of the planet, it`s been there for close to fourteen billion years. Legend says that it wasn`t even moved an inch by the Grand Enforcer himself during the Billion Years of Hell," Shin stated. Gohan refrained from explaining that he`d killed the huge demonic entity at the age of twelve, he didn`t want to give anyone a heart attack...   
  
"Legend also says that it will grant enormous power to any who can weild it," Kibito added, only to continue before anyone could reply. "But you don`t need to worry about that, you won`t even be able to make it budge an inch," he stated with a shrug. Gohan narrowed his eyes at the larger figure for a moment, then looked ahead again. _"Great... I almost die and now I`m stick in an 'I`m Better Than You' contest with an egotistical sub-god..."_ Gohan thought with implied sarcasm.   
  
"There it is," Shin exclaimed, drawing the attention of both of the others, who looked down to see the extremely tall, extremely narrow line rising off of the ground in the distance. Atop the spire was the buried sword that the Kaioshin had spoken of, which Gohan was able to get a fairly good look at after touching down.   
  
By all means, the sword didn`t look _that_ spectacular. If anything, it looked like a larger version of the one Mirai Trunks had used, along with a far brighter blade and a true gold finish to the hilt. Gohan smirked. "So I have to pull it out of this rock, right?" He asked, glancing over to Shin. "Reminds me of an old legend back home," he mused before rubbing his palms together and cracked his knuckles several times, much to the apparent amusement of Kibito.   
  
"Here I go..." Gohan said, more to himself than anyone else, crouching down somewhat and then grabbing the hilt before giving a solid yank. There was a faint cracking sound in the dirt but the sword didn`t budge an inch. Gohan gave another solid yank, grunting and pulling for everything he was worth. Nothing happened. Again and again, Gohan pulled away at the sword, yanking it in various directions, in one failed attempt actually shoving it deeper into the ground by accident. Gohan thought he was onto something at that point and began pushing it deeper into the ground, until the entire blade of the sword vanished. He couldn`t make it go in any further though, so his intent of splitting the obviously enchanted, mile high pillar in half down the middle went out the window right then and there.   
  
Gohan yanked again, succeeding in tugging the sword back up to it`s original position, no further. He shoved it to the side, but it didn`t cut into the ground at all. Gohan finally stood up straight, thoughtfully breathing out cool air onto his rug burnt hands. Kibito smirked in a self assured manner. "I guess I`ll just have to try harder..." Gohan thought aloud, mentally opening up the trigger mechanism that caused him to transform.   
  
A flash of golden light bathed the top of the spire, fading back to reveal a youth who looked like a Knight waiting to change ranks to King, golden hair swept up in a frenzy, longer and thicker looking with two locks dangling off towards the left of his face, eyes swiftly having changed from black to a fiery jade color, face noticably more serious, surrounding by a rushing flame that tinged the same gold as the sun itself.   
  
"One more time..." He stated, catching Kibito off gaurd before reaching down and grabbing onto the hilt of the sword. A swift tug was made, and the ground could be heard groaning around the blade of the sword, cracking, yeilding inch by inch. "Impossible," Kibito muttered in dismay. "I told you so," Shin quipped with a wave of a finger.   
  
_ "Almost got it..."_ Gohan thought, pausing his assault on the weapon and catching his breath before hopping off the ground with his body anchored by his girp on the sword, then stomping down as hard as possible. There was a loud cracking, tearing sound and...   
  
  
Videl blinked, feeling her senses jerk a moment. "Did you just feel that?" She asked, looking over to the large man beside her. Ox King shrugged. "Not that much, felt like I just had one heck of an itch though..." He commented with a bland expression. "Odd," Videl replied, getting up to her feet. She had no idea why the Ox King had chosen to stay around her at this point, but she didn`t mind the company. "Care to go check up on Goten and Trunks? They should be waking up now..." She suggested.   
  
"Yeah," Ox agreed, hauling his immense bulk up off of the steps and rubbing his sore rear end. "Lead the way," he ordered gingerly. Videl did as told, though only because the Ox King happened to be fairly nice in how he said it. Not to mention he was related to Gohan. Anyone else would likely end up thrown off of the Look Out, but still.   
  
  
Gohan hovered almost thirty feet up off of the top of the spire, over a mile off of the ground in general, holding the heaviest object he`d ever even considered trying to lift in both hands. The sheer force of yanking the Zet Sword free of it`s ancient holding area was enough that it had thrown the weight of the weapon, and Gohan with it, right off of the ground. The sky flashed blue for all of a split second and Gohan descended back down to the top of the pillar, holding the weighty weapon in both hands and just trying to avoid dropping it.   
  
Kibito had passed out. Shin wasn`t doing much better, though he at least bore a nervous smile in the process.   
  
_ Nobody told me what you thought  
Nobody told me what to say  
Everyone showed you where to turn  
Told you where to runaway   
  
_ Trunks and Goten were both somberly staring at Goku, ChiChi and Bulma. ChiChi, who had only come because she felt an obligation to see after her remaining son, and Bulma, who`d managed to calm herself down enough to be present, were both making sure to keep at the door. They didn`t want to be too close, not because of selfishness but because of survival instinct. Saiyans had a nasty habit of powering up explosively when they were confronted with severe emotional trauma, and this...   
  
"You`re fucking kidding us..."   
  
... Was no exception. Trunks was the only one with the sense to actually speak clearly, though he slipped up entirely and had no other recourse but to cuss in the process. It was _that_ difficult to believe. "I`m not kidding you Trunks. Gohan and Vegeta are both dead," Goku said again, just as Videl and the Ox King appeared in the door way, standing behind ChiChi and Bulma. Zangya stood off to the side out in the hall, leaned back against the wall and listening in as quietly as possible.   
  
"How?! _**HOW IN THE FUCK CAN MY DAD BE DEAD?! HE`S A PRINCE! PRINCES DON`T DIE!!!**_" Trunks howled in disbelief, crumpling to the floor in a ball. Goten just stood there with a wince and a twitch, glancing down at Trunks and then up at Goku. "How... Did... Who killed them?" He asked, having to collect his words in mid-sentence, even while Trunks pounded out fist sized craters into the floor during his tantrum. "A creature called Majin Buu. Gohan died first, Vegeta blew himself up to try and kill it. Both of them didn`t do any real damage," Goku explained solemnly.   
  
Goten twitched again, and for all of a second, Goku could see a crimson glow surrounding the color in the boy`s eyes, which promptly faded to a murderous teal. The entire Look Out seemed to tremble while Goten fought an inner war with himself.   
  
"Yow, so the little shit finally got his just desserts..." Jack quipped nonchalantly, perched up on Goku`s shoulder, though only Goten could see or hear him, or even feel his presence. "Shut up Jack..." Goten growled almost ferally, that crimson glow returning to his eyes. "Ah why? He deserved it," the small entity replied borishly. "He... Didn`t... Deserve... To die..." Goten replied angrily, flaring his nostrils. "Goten?" Goku asked.   
  
"Sure he did," Jack replied.   
  
"**_SHUT UP!!!_**" Goten screamed, leaving the ground in a flash and sweeping a kick towards Goku`s head. The elder Son ducked out of the way on instinct alone, turning around to watch his irate youngest child plow through the wall and right into the hallway, throwing an errant ki blast at random. "Goten!" Goku yelled, trying to bring his son to heel before Goten accidentally hurt anyone.   
  
"**_JUST SHUT UP JACK! I`M SICK OF YOU! WHY DO YOU HAVE TO HATE GOHAN?! WHY CAN`T YOU BE NICE FOR ONCE?!_**" Goten screamed, chasing after the little imp that only he could see in a rage. That red glow had come to envelope most of his body at this point, and Jack was having one hell of a time trying to avoid getting plastered. True, he was technically unkillable at this point, but it would probably hurt very badly if Goten managed to land a hit.   
  
Using his small size to his advantage, Jack jumped between Goten`s legs and took off down the darkened corridor, turning to the left and promptly vanishing from sight. Goten, who`s eyes now burned a bright, vivid red, and without heed or warning, he ferally lunged forward, plowing straight through the wall next to the stunned Zangya, jumping over Trunks and then kicking out the wall behind him. The other boy was finally jarred out of his senses in time to glance over his shoulder and watch Goten dive down a darkened hall, Goku not more than a step behind.   
  
As for those remaining...   
  
For the first time it dawned upon the adults and the teen that had been gathered and still relatively coherent at the present. For the first time any of them could remember, they all came to the same realization with stunning clarity. It was almost jarringly clear as to why Goten had never stopped talking to his imaginary friend. Hell, it _was_ jarringly clear now:   
  
Goten was a schizophrenic.   
  
That was the only logical explanation as to what had just happened, and it fit with virtually every single time they`d heard of Jack. ChiChi though, was the only one to do anything vocal about it. Her life had, in the past seven hours, effectively gone down the drain. One son was dead, the other was probably clinically insane, and her husband was a self-embodied ghost that was only going to be in this plane of existence for the rest of the day.   
  
In short, ChiChi`s worst fears had been realized. She had always nagged Gohan out of concern, she`d always been mildly depressed that both of her sons had chosen the life that had ultimately killed their father and now, _now_ she`d been proven right. Just. Like. That.   
  
"Why does this have to happen to me?" ChiChi asked before fainting.   
  
_ Nobody told you where to hide  
Nobody told you what to say  
Everyone showed you where to turn  
Showed you where to runaway   
  
_ "Goten, get back here!" Goku shouted, darting around another corner and watching his son, by now surrounded by blood red fire. It was outright disturbing to Goku, seeing what was essentially the mirror image of himself in his youth as he was now. Even more so that Goten`s hair had risen up as if in Super Saiyan, but it was faded from black to a metallic shade of blood red like his aura. His eyes, normally the same black as Goku`s, were now consumed by a pale green, not the teal or jade that you could attach to Super Saiyan or it`s counterpart, but a pale green, almost lime in color.   
  
"Come on out, Jack," Goten ordered, flaring that crimson aura brighter and illuminating what appeared to be an old library in the Look Out, unused for centuries but still relatively well kept nonetheless. "**_SON GOTEN, NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO BE THROWING A TANTRUM AT THINGS THAT DON`T EXIST!!!_**"   
  
Goten snapped his attention to the right, glaring vengefully over at Goku. In an utterly inhuman voice, the child roared at his father, rocking Goku back a bit before the larger, older, more experienced of the two placed two fingers to his forehead and vanished. Goten glared around, still searching for Jack and assuming he`d sent Goku through a wall or at the least, toppled a book shelf on him.   
  
He was proven dreadfully wrong as a hand thrice the size of his own barreled down and thundered across his cheek. In a moment of seering clarity, Goten faded back to normal, sobbing violently into the floor of the darkened room, while Goku stood over him, looking down like some sort of angel. The halo, which happened to illuminate his outline just vaguely in that angelic sort of way only added to this effect as he knelt down and placed a hand onto his son`s back.   
  
"Goten?" Goku asked. "Why can`t I get rid of him?" Goten asked. It was increasingly apparent that the boy had been carrying a whole lot more baggage than he ever let on, Gohan`s death had only been the straw that broke the camel`s back. "Who?" Goku asked, gently tugging Goten to sit next to him, then lifting the boy up while moving himself to stand straight. "Jack... He`s my imaginary... Thing," Goten replied, not sure if he could handle calling the small entity a friend anymore. Goten sniffled briefly and then resigned himself to clinging to Goku`s neck while the two began a long walk back out of the library. "I just can`t get rid of him..."   
  
"It`ll be okay," Goku comforted, trying to believe his own words. It was going to be a long day with what he had left, and he still had to teach Trunks and Goten how to fuse.   
  
Sometimes, Goku honestly wondered if the universe had it in for him...   
  
_ Can you take it all away  
Can you take it all away  
When ya shoved it in my face  
Explain again to me  
  
_ Gohan grimaced. All of fifteen minutes ago, Shin and Kibito had been just short of leveled in surprise at the fact he was even holding the Zet sword with no aid. Now Shin was busy eating a late afternoon lunch while Kibito drilled attack forms and psycho babble into him. To boot, he was beginning to suspect the sword had a few properties that even the Kaioshin wasn`t aware of, he was also beginning to feel the wear of the weapon`s insane weight on his fingers.   
  
Gohan had gone through three emotional nightmares, killed an alien, almost took his father`s head off, snapped out at those closest to him, been beaten to the brink of death in just a few quick moves by a demon he could scarcely truly comprehend, and on top of that, two people he`d never known prior to today were ordering him to learn how to fight with a sword that probably weighed two or three times as much as the mile high pillar of stone it was set into.   
  
It was so very tiring, he just wanted to sleep at this point, but the battle to come wouldn`t allow for a respite, so he steeled himself, swinging the blade again. With each stroke he made, the weapon became a little lighter. It was almost like being greeted by an old friend, in a sense.   
  
_ You take it all  
You take it all away  
Explain again to me  
You take it all away  
Explain again to me  
Take it all away  
Explain again  
  
_ With a sigh, Gohan glanced to his right, where Kibito stood, eying him like a hawk with a plan. _"I`ll have to keep an eye out for that guy,"_ Gohan thought to himself, turning discreetly back to face ahead of himself and letting out a massive yell, jumping into the air and again making attacks at nonexistent foes. He had to train hard, he had to get stronger.   
  
He had to get home.   
  
He had to get to his mother, his brother, father, grandfather, Piccolo, Zangya, Dende, Videl and everyone else.   
  
He had to. They were counting on him, even if they probably weren`t doing so intentionally.   
  
Gohan had to get home.   
  
And he would.   
  
Come Hell or high water, he would.   
  


_ End Part Twelve  
  


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**Author`s Note:** Ah... Good to be back :P  
  
Speaking of Happy Hills *Evil cackle.* What`d ya think of that one? As for the 'facts about the saiyans,' what can I say? I **_HATE_** how so many people butcher them into such a die-hard romantic race. Come on for christs sake, they evolved on the principle of **_killing_** shit, not being angsty romantic saps. Figured it was about time for SOMEONE to start bashing the hell out of crap like the Bonding and how people have Saiyans call their lovers 'mates.' Come on, they may have tails but they don`t consider themselves animals.  
  
And yeah, that one lyric from "The Show Must Go On" didn`t fit too well, but the rest of the song wasn`t too off. Besides, it has a nice dramatic tune if you`ve never heard it.  
  
Anywho, Sh33p out. See ya!  
  



	14. Hero

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


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Hybrid Theory: Generations**   
_Hero   
  
  
  
_

Kaioshin-kai, Heaven`s Ceiling, Holiest of Holies, Final Paradise, Supreme Palace, Ultimate Lawnmower Nightmare... The Kaioshin`s word had been granted a lot of names over the course of the eons. It`d played host to an endless succession of Dai Kaio and Kaioshin of every kind, it had been the place of numerous negotiations during Times past, between Heaven and Hell when the two had been at war, between mythical kingdoms and empires, dominions and other universal power houses that the current inhabitants of existence could scarcely comprehend if they tried. It was the final resting place of the long vanished souls of thousands of Kaios, over a hundred Kaioshin and at least three Dai Kaioshin. It was located out in a quadrant that rested so far from the main inhabited areas of Heaven that it took years to reach if one tried the conventional means of the Higher Planes, only half as long if one took the old Eternal Paths off of the worlds of the Dai Kaio.   
  
It was also a forgotten world, and the last of it`s kind. Hundreds of other worlds had once filled the skies around Kaioshin-kai, which had then been just another Kaioshin-owned world belonging to one of the dozen or so East Kaioshin. All of them were now collected as the infinite, mystical cloud of debris that bordered Heaven from Hell. Buu`s slaughter ran deep, it`d even scarred the Afterlife, though none of the current Kaios, Enma or even the lower ranking Dai Kaio(he wasn`t a true Dai Kaio mind you, just the eldest surviving Kaio, beating the others out by roughly 200,000 years of seniority) could ever attest to knowing it.   
  
Among other things, Kaioshin-kai had once been a school of warriors who knew no peer, they were endlessly skilled. The elites among even the gods, trained by the Dai Kaioshin himself. They were different from the fighters who took part in the Kaio-sponsored tournaments between Heaven and Hell from time to time, they were even different from the current Kaioshin. The last among them had been the thirteenth North Kaioshin, one of the current(East) Kaioshin`s group, who`d coincidentally been one of the better - but not the best - members of this elite fighting school. They were all as good as they were in ways differing from normal fighters of even that time though.   
  
They all used weapons. Swords, spears, bos(the Power Pole, or Nyoi-Bo, depending on who you asked about it, was a typical divine weapon), bows and arrows, whips, scythes, chains and maces of every kind had been used by this school of fighters.   
  
Kaioshin-kai had been silent for almost five million years. There`d been no training there, save the rigorous mental spars carried on between Kibito as he continued to instruct and school Shin in the arts of magic and telepathy, the only field where the old Dai Kaio was still one of the best in existence at. For all of five million years, nothing had happened. Kaioshin-kai was a very boring place, only the plants grew and changed during that time.   
  
That had all changed starting twenty minutes ago. Now, the sounds of mock combat rang through the once empty fields of the world. The only visual sign of confirmation was the ever extending, looping, breaking, turning, spiraling streak of dust that was vaguely visible from low orbit. On the ground, it looked like the equivelent of Vegeta imitating a mole after too much coffee. Every second that went by, a visible streak of light flashed off of the blade of the sword, echoed by a whistle a few seconds later.   
  
The dust trail came to a screeching halt in front of a cliff, spiraling around and blowing away like a tornado to reveal what could best be described as a golden haired lunatic in weird Knight`s clothing. Standing alone now, Gohan breathed a small sigh. He`d made an astounding amount of progress in just twenty minutes, but it didn`t mean much. He could feel himself a little stronger, and the sword felt just a little lighter to him, but he still hadn`t mastered it.   
  
The cliff wall in front of him hardly made for a worthy opponent. Gohan held the sword to his right shoulder, breathing hard and taking a step back. The cliff began to shake briefly, and then blew apart into a few dozen or so imperfectly carved blocks. The blocks hovered in the air briefly and then fell back to the ground as a pile of rubble, crumpling after a few seconds. Gohan grimaced. His strength was beginning to improve but he`d yet to master how to properly weild the weapon with any skill. Sword fighting wasn`t new to him, in fact it had been one of the few types of fighting that he had enjoyed learning right off of the bat, mainly since he`d done so out of necessity at an early age.   
  
He hadn`t practiced with a blade since then. Sure, he`d taken Mirai Trunks on in a spar using specially made kendo sticks, but that had been one time and it technically wasn`t legitamate practice.   
  
"Need to find a way to get the hang of this thing," Gohan commented to himself, holding the sword down in front of him and gathering his breath. Sparing a bit of his concentration and effort from the task of even holding the sword, Gohan reached out with his mind and used his ki to force one of the massive pieces of debris up off of the ground, breaking it apart into as many fist sized pieces as he could before giving them the mental command to rush into a tornado-like pattern.   
  
It wasn`t a typical swordsman who tried to master the art of precision by taking out floating chunks of fist sized dirt moving at mach one in a false tornado. But then again, Gohan wasn`t a normal person.   
  
_ I am so high. I can hear heaven  
I am so high. I can hear heaven  
No heaven, no heaven dont hear me   
  
_ "**_HIII-YA!_**" Gohan screamed, jumping off of the ground and right to the edge of the spherical tornado above and in front of him.   
  
  
"Quite devoted to his training, isn`t he?" Shin asked, standing with his hands behind his back a good mile or two from where Gohan was cutting into the tornado. "Not devoted enough," Kibito replied. "He fails to grasp the enormity of the task before him, the sword he has is not a toy to be wasted on pieces of dirt, and Majin Buu is not an enemy to be defeated in the way he intends to try," the Dai Kaio stated. "Possibly, but given the methods available to him on this matter, I somehow doubt there`s much better, short of storming into one of the Hells and trying to find the best swordsman there," Shin grimaced. "This is all we have for now, it`s best that we try and make it count."   
  
"Indeed, but he lacks the proper focus. As I said, he does not grasp the enormity of the task before him," Kibito replied. "And I believe _you_ do not grasp the problems facing any other method of training. Name any one weapon off the top of your head that can likely withstand the power of the Zet Sword, without referring to a Damned Sword," Shin challenged quietly. Kibito paused briefly. Then he shook his head with a grimace. "I`m afraid I cannot," he stated. "Then be quiet about trying to improve him. Any harder and I fear his mortal mind would buckle under the pressure."   
  
"You have always misjudged the strength of mortals, Kaioshin," Kibito reprimanded. "And you seem to misjudge the kind of power they`re capable of. Can you or I even hold that weapon without dropping it or having to power to our limits? And can we do so even half as well as the boy is?" Shin asked. "Recklessness in this situation will get us no where, we need to have at least the caution to make sure we don`t destroy our only real chance in sight."   
  
Kibito was broodingly silent to Shin`s response.   
  
_ And they say that a hero can save us  
Im not gonna stand here and wait  
I'll hold onto the wings of the eagles  
Watch as they all fly away  
  
_ Goten and Trunks sat idly next to one another. They were both at least far enough past the shock and grief of losing Gohan and Vegeta that they`d become competent enough to take orders - begrudgingly - from Goku, who was trying to gauge their powers. "Now both of you, power up to your limits," Goku ordered. Goten and Trunks shot each other looks of disbelief, but they did as told. Raising themselves up and out of normal, the two boys both let out shouts and lurched forward. Goten was only an inkling quicker, his hair had started to turn gold all of an eighth of a second before Trunks, who`s own hair flashed golden in the same blazing way as Goten`s. The Look Out again began to shake for the second time of the day as the two boys` hair rose up, one taking what almost looked like the shape of a crown, the other`s hair rising up to look like golden flame turned solid.   
  
The eyes went next, shifting from blue and black to teal, just as the prerequisite golden aura shot up from the tiled flooring and lit up the entire room, not to mention kicked up a small scale whirlwind within. ChiChi and Bulma both had to grapple onto things to remain standing, Videl wasn`t much better off and Yamcha was only barely able to weather it without moving. Piccolo`s cape billowed and Juu calmly proceeded to leave the room with Marron, who was shouting out encouragement to the two boys within.   
  
Goku wasn`t that surprised when Trunks hit his limit and slowed down, standing up straight with a nod. Goten just shouted again, rattling the room further. That was when Goku found his surprise - Gohan hadn`t been joking when he`d said that Goten`s power didn`t seem to have any tangible limit. The boy just kept going, and his ki kept growing. _"... Maybe this 'Jack' thing has something to do with it,"_ Goku thought with suspicion. He could almost feel an extra ki, infinitesimally smaller than even that of an insect, residing in the shadow of Goten`s own ki. The small blip vanished soon enough though, drowned out as Goten continued raising his ki, showing visible strain as he hit some sort of barrier.   
  
Goku blinked. _"So he does have a limit,"_ he mused, only to watch as Goten`s hair started lengthening just a bit. The boy let out a shout and staggered to the side, his ki dropping sharply as Trunks caught him and chucked him back onto his feet. "I told you to stop doing that," the older boy chastised. "Well, he did say to... Keep going to the limit," Goten defended, though he was short on breath at the time. "Very good," Goku observed, noting the look on Piccolo`s face. It was either the first time the Namek had really seen what Goten was capable of or just slight concern.   
  
Goten`s ki kept dropping down, though Goku could feel the boy straining to keep his power up, eventually causing it to level off at the exact same point as Trunks. "Both of you, remember the levels your at, you`re going to need it in the future, alright?" Goku asked. Trunks and Goten both gave begrudged nods. "Okay, now power back down," Goku ordered. Trunks and Goten did as told. "Why do we have to be the same level?" Trunks asked.   
  
"You`ll see... Now raise your kis as high as you can while normal, it`ll be hard to fuse as Super Saiyans," Goku advised, feeling no change in the two. "Something wrong?" Goku asked. Trunks snorted, hunching his shoulders in a manner which Goku promptly imitated. "What were you doing when Gohan and Vegeta were killed?" Goten asked. "And why was it so important that you couldn`t help them?" Trunks added. Goku was silent, everyone else in the room was mortified.   
  
"... I was unconcious," Goku finally answered. "You were unconcious?" Goten asked. "You were knocked out. You`re weak mister..." Trunks stated annoyedly. "Learning techniques off of you won`t make us any stronger, and they won`t make us any more skilled," Goten added. Goku blinked and Piccolo cursed under his breath. "Don`t you get it?! Gok-" "It`s okay Piccolo," Goku interrupted, glancing over to the Namek with a shrug, setting his hands on his belt. "I really _am_ pretty weak. I don`t stand a chance against Buu," Goku said with another shrug. Piccolo stared at him blankly.   
  
"But..." He began, turning back to Trunks and Goten with a smirk. "I can still teach you Fusion, and if you want to kill Buu for Gohan and Vegeta, you`ll learn it," Goku stated, playing a little mind game with the two boys and winning right off the bat. Goten and Trunks stared at him briefly. Trunks looked dumbfounded, Goten looked prepared. "Do you honestly think we`re go-" **_"I`m baaaack!"_** A shrill voice exclaimed, ending any and all thought of continuing the arguement.   
  
**_ "We`ve found a much bigger city this time,"_** the voice stated cheerfully. _**"We`re going to erase this city now, kiss it good-BYE!"**_ Babidee howled with laughter. _**"Ma Junior, Goten and Trunks, this will happen again and again and again and AGAIN until you show up!"   
  
**_ "He`s talking about us!" Trunks yelped, glancing over at Piccolo. "Trunks, close your eyes, you can see Buu that way!" Goten advised, his own eyes already squinted shut. Trunks gave a nod and did as told, right as Piccolo shouted to them to not close their eyes. **_"Well, it looks like nobody wants to talk to me... Oh well, I guess this means Buu gets a snack,"_** Babidee stated, waving his finger at the nonexistent camera. _**"Turn them all into chocolate!"**_ Babidee ordered.   
  
Buu shouted happily and lunged it`s head forward, tail whipping forward and pointing into the city. Goten and Trunks both recoiled in disgust. "He`s turning them into chocolate!" Trunks shouted. Buu quickly finished his little snack, then carelessly raised a hand up, pointing a gloved finger to the city and firing off a thin, pinkish bolt of energy.   
  
The city exploded in flames instantly. It was gone by the end of the following five seconds. **_"Heh heh... Look`s like Buu`s had his fill of chocolate, hm? I guess he`ll just blow up the next city. Where will we pop up next, hmmm?"_** Babidee asked, just as the visual began to fade.   
  
**_ "BABIDEE!!!"_** Goten communicated angrily. **_"Eh?"_** The sorcerer asked. **_"This is Trunks!" "And Goten!"_** The two boys stated. **_"Oh good, at least they`re talking to me..."   
  
"Listen up asshole,"_** Goten began. **_"Not now, but soon, VERY soon, we`re going to kill you!"_** Trunks finished. "Stop talking to him!" Piccolo ordered. "He`ll find out about this place," he explained. Trunks and Goten both gave stern nods and did as told, shooting glares straight to Goku, who just smirked. **_"CHEATERS!!!"   
  
_** "Now are you going to train and learn Fusion?" He asked. Goten and Trunks replied only with fervant nods.   
  
_ Someone told me love will all save us  
But how can that be, look what love gave us  
A world full of killing, and blood-spilling  
That world never came  
  
_ Zangya grimaced, touching down on Kame Island alone. She hadn`t wanted to do this, in fact, she literally would`ve preferred her own death over doing what she was about to do. It would`ve been far less degrading for one, far less chilling for another. Unfortunately for Zangya, the statement Juuhachigou had made some five and a half to six years earlier still rang as true as the day it had been said to her.   
  
_ "They grow on you, don`t they?"_ Zangya quoted in thought, quietly giving the surrounding ocean a dull once-over. "Hello there," an elderly voice greeted, just as Zangya heard a faint shuffling a few feet away, exiting the surf. "Hello, Umi," Zangya greeted with a nod. "What can I do for ya?" The turtle asked politely, shuffling along on the sand. "Nothing really, just here to... Pick some things up," Zangya replied with a shrug. Umi raised a hairless brow. He`d departed the group earlier on, somehow managing to swim all the way home in a fairly short amount of time with effort to spare.   
  
"But..." He began to question, only to fall silent as Zangya hopped through the open living room window and into the house. It had certainly changed since Zangya lived there, they`d replaced the television and the old couch - the new one didn`t have Roshi`s signature stink on it - and toys littered the corner of the room. Zangya smirked lightly at the picture of her god-daughter climbing her hair during the brief period of time when Zangya had kept the lengthy mess of orange tied into a rope-like braid. Sure, it hadn`t been funny at the time, the agonized expression Zangya had on her face in the picture spoke of that little fact, but looking back on it, Zangya found it pretty humorous.   
  
She could still remember the days when she, Krillin and Juuhachi would lounge around in the kitchen, making fun of whatever happened to be on the television at the time. Moving up the stairs and off of the first floor, Zangya`s ears vaguely registered the sound of Umi grumbling in the living room after the door had opened up. For not having fingers or opposable thumbs, Umi Gama could get around.   
  
Placing her hand on the door knob to the attic, Zangya steeled herself for what she knew was about to happen. Turning the knob and opening the door, Zangya stepped inside, instantly feeling the heat of the room in the afternoon. It was unmistakable, along with the dusty humidity that came with it. For a moment, Zangya had trouble believing she`d actually lived in the room once, and then she shrugged.   
  
Zangya didn`t want to do this. She didn`t want to come here for this purpose. She didn`t want this day to have what was about to happen take place. She didn`t want to have to settle into the maddening effects of what was going to happen to her. In fact, if it was just Zangya, and no one else, she`d have much preferred being killed to what was about to happen. Unfortunately though...   
  
Juuhachigou had been right. They`d all grown on her, and for them, Zangya had no other choice. Nonchalantly shoving aside an old filing cabinet labelled 'Roshi`s Pr0n,' Zangya rummaged through the drawers of an even older dresser, eventually coming to the top left drawer after several minutes.   
  
What she removed looked like any ordinary black box, but it wasn`t just any ordinary black box. The finish was dusted over, the rim was slightly sticky and the stick it note reading 'Do **NOT** open' was faded badly. It was a plain black box. Inside though, was something that wasn`t plain in any sense of the word but appearance. Opening the small box with a popping sound, Zangya glared at what was inside.   
  
The old jewelry. Two ear rings and a medallion-like necklace. The gemstones on each were large and red, the same color as frozen blood. "They really _did_ grow on me," Zangya said to herself with a bittersweet smile, lifting the necklace up out of the box.   
  
_ And they say that a hero can save us  
I'm not gonna stand here and wait  
I'll hold onto the wings of the eagles  
Watch as they all fly away  
  
_ Kibito watched mercilessly with the gaze of a grizzled veteran warrior. He`d never been an elite but he knew enough to have a great deal of skill and experience under his belt when it came to sword fighting. Kibito had always been one for spears more so than anything else. Gohan was improving, yes, but he still hadn`t managed half the skill that Kibito felt he would need. A whistling explosion and another stone shattered into burning dirt that vaporized before it could touch the ground. The golden haired youth had improved greatly, but he hadn`t improved enough. His style was still two handed, clumsy and off-balance.   
  
Kibito winced as the boy missed a strike and sliced through the bark of one of the oldest trees on the planet, straight to the core and out the other side. It would scar the old tree permanently but thankfully it didn`t destroy it. The youth was looking tired but defiant, moving at such a speed that Kibito was only able to keep up by using his mind, keeping his eyes open and following Gohan`s direction only to continue urging the boy on.   
  
_ "Lord Kaioshin isn`t being tough enough about him. This may require far more drastic measures..."_ Kibito thought. In his heart, Kibito wasn`t as ruthless as he probably seemed at times, but at the moment, the universe literally hung by a few threads. He percieved he had to pick up Shin`s slack, and he was doing just that with as much devotion as even a god could manage.   
  
But he still felt it wasn`t devoted enough. Kibito shifted his eyes in the direction of the small palace that he and Shin resided in. He could see the other god standing at the door, watching Gohan`s training just as fervantly.   
  
_ "I`ll just have to convince him somehow,"_ Kibito thought, turning his attention back towards Gohan, who was still tearing through the remains of the tornado he`d created earlier.   
  
_ Now that the world isnt ending  
This love that I`m sending to you  
It isn't the love of a hero  
And thats why I fear it wont do   
  
"Everyone`s counting on me again,"_ Gohan thought, stumbling his feet into a better position while spinning his body around. The weight of the sword was still offsetting his balance and he`d yet to finish compensating for it. "Mom, Goten, Videl, Dende, Piccolo, Zangya, Bulma, Trunks..." Gohan sounded off a name in his mind with each thrust or slash he made with the weapon. _"Everyone." _  
  
Gohan jumped through the air, dragging the sword along with him and slicing straight through another of the few remaining chunks of debris from when he`d begun the tornado a while earlier. _"... I guess this is going to be..."_ Gohan paused his thoughts, landing on the ground and placing the sword tip down into the grass. It`s weight automatically cut through several inches of dirt, and Gohan hunched forward over it, wheezing exhaustedly. _"... Gut check time for me. Maybe I should finally tell Videl about the crystal I gave her... Or that minor detail about us being soul mates,"_ Gohan mused. Sure, the universe was in danger, but hell, Gohan had a life ya know. _"Assuming of course that I live through **any** of this,"_ he added, standing open straight letting out a lengthy yawning sigh as the remaining stones began to sounds high into the air, right into low orbit in fact.   
  
_ "Days like this, I wish I was Dad. At least he knew what to do in these situations..."   
  
_ Gohan raised the sword back up off of the ground, holding it sideways over his shoulder and then willing the stones to drop. It was back to work...   
  
Again.   
  
_ And they say that a hero can save us  
I'm not gonna stand here and wait  
I'll hold onto the wings of the eagles  
Watch as they all fly away  
  
** "Ohhhh Earrrrthliiiings!"**_ Babidee called out as Buu touched down in the middle of the city they`d selected as their next target. It was a city all of thirty miles down the coast West Capital. Buu was grinning with a look to be described only as childlike as he waited for the order. **_"It`s that time again folks! Unless Ma Junior, Trunks and Goten show up right here and now, this city is going to go straight to Hell with everybody in it!"_** Babidee howled into the hearts and minds of the people of the Earth.   
  
  
Trunks and Goten paused. They`d been practicing with their power levels for almost fifteen minutes now, and both were more than a little tired about doing it. Goku grimaced, placing his hands to his hips. Piccolo shook his head as well, glancing over towards Goku. "It looks like they`re getting closer to West Capital," Piccolo announced. "I know. I`d say we have twelve more minutes - tops - before they manage to get there. This is bad," Goku replied gravely.   
  
"Then what do we do?" Trunks asked. "Stand here and do nothing?" Goku shook his head. "No. Keep practicing your power levels, it`s all we can do for now," he stated grimly, just as Bulma appeared in the doorway, concern evident in her face.   
  
"They`re near West Ca-" "We know Bulma," Goku cut her off dryly. "What about Mom and Dad?" She asked. "We can wish them back with the Dragonballs," Goku explained calmly. "Not without the Radar you can`t," Bulma replied hotly. Goku almost slapped himself. "Alright, Trunks, do you know what the Radar looks like?" Goku asked, just as Trunks shot his eyes open. "Buu just started blowing buildings up..." He said.   
  
"Don`t focus on that. Do you know what the Radar looks like?" Goku asked again. Trunks shook his head yes. "Good, I`m going to try and stall Bu-" **_"Having fun, are we?"_** A new voice entered into the massive conversation that Babidee had started.   
  
_ And they're watching us   
Watching us  
As they all fly away   
  
_ Buu turned around sharply in response to the new voice. "Who are you?" It asked curiously, though almost with annoyance at the figure who`d dared to interrupt it`s killing spree. Half of the buildings in the city had crashed to the ground and were burning, most of the inhabitants of the city were either running away or dead. Babidee was cackling briefly before he`d heard the voice as well, turning around to face whoever had bothered getting up the guts to so calmly address _his_ Majin Buu.   
  
"Who I am doesn`t matter. What I`m going to do to you, however..." Cell Junior stated, cracking his knuckles gingerly. "Most certainly does."   
  


_ End Part Thirteen  
  
_

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**Author`s Note:** Bwahahahaha! **_ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER!_** Being evil is such fun :D  
  
And on a sidenote: Anyone else besides Rev.Vampyre and I who uses the name Kaioshin-kai for Shin`s planet? Not sure if it was ever titled that in the series but it just seems fitting in a way... Ah well, Sh33p out. Leave a review and see ya next time! 


	15. Dead Cell

  
  
**Disclaimer:** Don`t own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations  
**_ Dead Cell  
  
  
  
_

"Am I supposed to be afraid of _you_?" Babidee asked nonchalantly, half-hidden behind Buu`s leg. Cell only shot him a lazy glance. "And am I supposed to give a shit if you`re afraid of me or not? You`re nothing, he`s the show," he stated, motioning towards Buu, who smiled proudly. "I`m the show, I`m the show," Buu sang, hopping side to side. "... _**WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! I AM THE GREAT SORCERER BABIDEE! I HAVE BUU WRAPPED AROUND MY FINGER, HE IS NOTHING TO ME! I CAN KILL YOU MYSELF AT AN INST**_-" Cell cut him off with nothing but a smirk. "Then come and get me, little sorcerer," he challenged, almost laughing. "... On second thought, you take him Buu," Babidee replied, quietly cowering behind his father`s creation. "My stomach is still sore from last night`s meal and all..." He excused.   
  
Cell left it at that, turning his attention sharply to Buu with a glare that would level any sane, normal creature just by it`s intensity alone. "You killed Son Gohan. You fat son of a bitch," Cell insulted with a sneer. "HE WAS MINE GOD DAMNIT! I WAS THE ONE WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO KILL HIM, NOT SOME BEEFY PIECE OF PINK MONKEY CRAP WITH A DICK ON IT`S FOREHEAD!!!" Cell screamed, rattling the entire area. The people had begun to wonder at this point if they`d gotten a savior or just a battle to see which villain was worse.   
  
"What`s that mean?" Buu asked, glancing down to Babidee. "It means he doesn`t like you. He thinks your an ugly bastard," Babidee answered. "He also thinks your candy stinks."   
  
Buu puffed it`s cheeks out angrily. "Now I`m mad..."   
  
"Then come get me, beefcake," Cell taunted, lowering himself into a fighting stance and waiting. Buu began to vent out small whisps of white smoke, opening it`s normally content eyes in a frown set so deeply it was hard to believe the creature could even smile at all.   
  
  
"... Well, this is... Unexpected," Goku mused, eyes closed as the two fighters began to size one another up. "Indeed. Cell`s either angry or jealous enough to come to the defense of the people, or he`s actually good somewhere in there," Piccolo replied. "I`d bet money on the former," Bulma muttered to herself. Goten and Trunks were both anxiously silent, a mood shared by everyone on the Look Out as the battle set itself to begin.   
  
_ Born with no soul, lack of control  
Cut from the mold of the anti-social  
Plug them in and turn them on  
Process data, make yourself the bomb   
  
_ "I`m gonna kill you," Buu threatened. "All beef, no action," Cell Junior chided with a grin, only to burst forward. Buu responded in kind, lunging forward and lashing out with it`s head-tail. Junior dodged to the side, managing to tilt out of the way and suddenly begin shuffling towards Buu while twisting around in a circle, finally arriving next to the creature as it`s tail punched a thirty foot deep line in the ground. Buu howled as Cell`s fist rained into it`s face, followed an instant later by the blue carapaced warrior`s left wing being used to stab into Buu`s gut. The creature grunted several times and faltered back, it`s tail retracting violently and whistling over Cell`s crown, scraping a thin trail into the outer layering of one of Cell`s head pieces before snapping back into place.   
  
The two fighters stepped back from each other. Cell`s small injury wasn`t healed, Buu sprang itself back to normal with a popping sound. "Nyeh nyeh," Buu taunted, only to have Cell shoot a hand out and grab his tongue. Buu yelped, flailing it`s limbs around as Cell blasted up off of the ground and used Buu`s tongue to yo-yo the other combatant up and down, delivering a punch across the face each time before powering up a bit of ki across the surface of his free hand and forcibly severing the tongue from it`s owner. Babidee flinched and Buu screamed, watching Cell Junior carelessly toss the piece of it`s anatomy up into the air and blast it out of existence.   
  
_ "I can see why Son died fighting him, Vegeta too. Both underestimated him far too much for them to effectively take him on,"_ Junior thought, observing Buu`s movements and expressions. The creature suddenly started flapping it`s regenerated tongue at him with a smile, blowing out bits of spit and chewed candy at Cell, who was unamused to say the least.   
  
"A regenerator like me," Junior observed with little hesitation. "This should be an interesting battle," he mused, raising his arms up and fanning his fingers out over his face. Buu glared annoyedly, this idiot wasn`t running yet, he wasn`t even intimidated in the least!   
  
"Here`s a trick for you, Buu..." Cell began.   
  
"**_TAIYOKEN!!!_**" He screamed an instant later, blindingly illuminating the entire area for miles around with a blast of light that shamed the sun a dozen times over, fading after all of twenty seconds to reveal a dazed, angry looking Majin Buu hovering across from a resolute Cell Junior, who threw two of his fingers up to his forehead and shouted out.   
  
"**_MAKANKOSAPPO!!!_**"   
  
Buu howled as the double beam corkscrewed straight into him, arcing around gracefully and plowing through the back of Buu`s head a few seconds later, hitting into itself and detonating violently, levelling several buildings below with the people still in them on the sheer force of the blast. Cell paused as his attack finished, then dropped down to the ground, standing in front of Babidee for a moment and then bending forward slightly, kicking the miniature tyrant in the chest and sending him spiralling through the air and into the side of a building.   
  
_ "That should take care of him if he was giving Buu any power, now it should be time to take it to the limit,"_ Junior reasoned, bending forward and waiting expectantly. Buu dropped out of the cloud, just as Cell had expected, landing clumsily as a pile of pink mush in the middle of the road in front of his opponent, who grit his teeth together and let out a terrible shout, blowing back buildings to either side and cracking the street in front of, beneath and behind him, just as the tell tale aura of golden fire shot up off of the ground, greeted an instant later by a series of electric blue cracks of energy rimming the fire. Buu was visibly unimpressed, but Cell Junior felt he knew why.   
  
When you fight three people in a row who all have the same power up and almost the same power level as each other, you tend to stop being so expectant of a grand show. Junior knew this because it was how his father thought. Cell Junior differed from the rest of his brethren in that he`d lived to maturity and that meant he had inherited the original Cell`s intellect, power and gained new tricks along the way. He had techniques, yes, but he also had a keen insight into how the mind of creatures like his father and brothers, and by default Majin Buu, worked.   
  
And in the long run, that and his extreme arsenal of attacks were all Junior truly had going for him. Buu grinned, suddenly darting forward. Concrete sheered a path beneath the pudgy villain`s feet, but his target was expecting the tactic. Cell froze in position and Buu rammed head on into his enhanced after image, plowing straight through it only to come to a halt and turn around, just as the real Cell tore through a stained glass window on the first floor of an appartment building, his foot finding it`s mark on Buu`s cheek and wrenching the creature`s head entirely around. Cell drew his leg back almost instantly, flipping forward onto his hands and springing both legs out this time, pummeling twin imprints the size and shape of his feet into Buu`s heaving gut, causing the creature to grunt again and leave the ground, tumbling into the side of a building and shooting out through it`s ceiling, the structure collapsing behind his bulky form.   
  
Cell didn`t miss a single step, phasing out of existence one second and reappearing the next, right in Majin Buu`s path. Buu stopped though, halting a good ways out from Cell`s reach and cannonballing back down through the street and into the sewer.   
  
_ "Shit,"_ Cell thought, glaring around to try and find Buu`s location. _"So, he can lower his ki but he can`t alter the pattern. Same flaw with Son and the others. Here`s hoping I don`t screw myself with what I`m about to do..."_   
  
Cell raised up two fingers again, first pointing them to the sky as he tracked Buu`s location by the frequency of his ki, locking down on the creature after several seconds and then pointing those fingers in that direction before thrusting his arm up as if in an uppercut.   
  
Babidee, who was standing within thirteen feet of where Cell had pointed, screeched in shock as the street behind him detonated without warning. There hadn`t even been a ki blast to detonate, the area had just blown itself up into a pillar of fire. Buu emerged a few seconds later, flipping out of the top of the explosion and mimicking Cell`s movements from earlier, though rather than making an uppercut, he drew his arm back and thrust it forward again.   
  
Cell stood on the ground watching this. Buu had yet to crack his after image trick - that was a good sign. The way his after image had been effectively consumed by a random explosion from no where wasn`t. _"I was right. He **can** learn new attacks just by seeing them once,"_ Junior thought bemusedly, lowering and shifting the signature of his ki to blend with the scenery. _"I`ll have to surprise him and keep my technique usage to a minimum,"_ Cell thought to himself, watching Buu dance around in the air, thinking it had killed him.   
  
_ "But that doesn`t mean I won`t blast the living hell out of him,"_ the blue fighter added to his thoughts with a smirk, placing both hands forward of himself, connected at the tip of the thumbs and index fingers, leaving a diamond shaped hole he could see through perfectly. Narrowing his eyes, Cell took a deep breath and spiked his ki back up, changing his signature to normal and letting loose with a modified form of the Kikouho, a technique which not many people thought of. Cell favored it for his present battle for a simplistic reason: It was instant. The Kikouho may not have been the flashiest technique but it, and the Shin Kikouho evolved from it, was certainly the fastest.   
  
Buu found this out the hard way as a searing wall of invisible heat, perfectly shaped to form a dozen or so knife like extensions of energy at the side which hit him, impacted his side, stabbing into him, burning his soft, putty-like flesh into more of a clay substance and splattering him so that he was horribly disfigured, looking fat on one side by not even there on the other. Confronted by this, Buu twitched briefly and then reinflated itself out, glaring daggers down at Cell. _"He won`t use it against me just yet... Too angry, and that`s clouding his judgement..."   
  
_ "That... Wasn`t... Nice..."   
  
The ground began to rattle and the building behind Cell Junior collapsed outright, crumpling straight down as an ethereal pink glow began to fill the area. _"Same technique he tried to use earlier, super area blast,"_ Cell recognized the attack perfectly before Buu had even begun to truly power the move up. The blue warrior shot off of the ground in a blur, appearing in front of Buu and twisting around, lashing his foot across Buu`s face again and then breaking loose with a dozen or so hard blows into Buu`s stomach, only to realize too late that Buu had lured him in.   
  
Cell let out a sickening yelp as his eyes bulged, his crown`s sections snapping under the pressure of Buu`s fist. The next thing he knew, Cell`s face had imploded into his skull, and he tumbled off of Buu`s hand several seconds later, leaving a purple slick on the knuckle and finger areas of Buu`s boxing glove.   
  
Cell landed lifelessly with a sick thump on the street, only to spring up several seconds later with a gush of purple as his crown shot back up into place and his face exploded back to normal, though now featuring a look of contempt. _"Smarter than he looks. Either that or I`m really not hurting him one bit and he`s just toying with me,"_ Junior thought. It wasn`t an easy prospect to face, he`d known he was terribly outgunned before the fight had even started. Vegeta and Gohan`s mutual demise had assured that much, especially since Cell could only just barely even off with Gohan, and Vegeta was just enough stronger that he could take Gohan in a lengthy enough fight.   
  
"Having fun yet?" He asked. Buu giggled in response. Cell`s head game with Buu seemed to be making little head way anymore, especially given that Buu`s mind was childlike enough that Cell couldn`t formulate a good plan for throwing him off balance with words.   
  
"**_HURRY UP AND KILL HIM ALREADY!_**" Babidee shouted.   
  
And then it was clear.   
  
_ What is your target  
What is your reason  
  
"Babidee. He`s Buu`s psychological weakness, if I can turn them against each other..."   
  
_ Buu wasn`t going to give him enough time to finish the thought. Cell howled a battle cry as the fat creature landed with a crashing sound in front of him, and the two quickly locked up from there. Punches flew, carapace dented and jelly-like fat condensed from impact damage, even as the two combatants battles sideways and straight through the glass door of a super mall. People were still running by, and more than a few died from errant strikes which carried enough force to send off the power of the attack into the air as if it had continued onward.   
  
Neither fighter seemed to notice this mind you, Buu was focused on having fun by playing with Cell, Cell was focused on killing Buu. It was sick to think that one fighter viewed the battle as rough housing, and the other knew that the fate of the universe was probably resting on his shoulders.   
  
Buu lashed out with a fist, Cell ducked and flowed into a kick, which Buu hopped back from, splashing through another glass wall and into a book store, and Cell wasn`t far behind. Paper flew everywhere as Buu tilted his mass out of the way, allowing Junior`s attack to carry by him and hit a book shelf, literally killing the unwitting lady who`d been hiding behind it by papercutting her to death. Junior grunted painfully and flew backwards out of the store, crashing through a fountain statue and then tearing through a concrete wall and into a shoe store. Buu followed up by grabbing the hapless young man crouched behind the counter and throwing him after Cell.   
  
"Catch!"   
  
_ Do you have emotions, is your heart freezing  
Seizing this opportunity to speak  
Ya didn't say nothin' but turn your fuckin' cheek  
  
_ "Tsuihidan!" Junior cried in response. "**_OH SHI_**-" The man was cut off in mid-air as the beam shot right through him, halting his momentum and flinging him back at Buu, who carelessly smacked the beam away and through the side of the book store, ignoring the man`s body, which slapped into his gut and bounced off, right up into the ceiling in a grotesque fashion. The Tsuihidan blew up in a nearby lingerie outlet, and as a result, flaming panties tore through the area.   
  
Cell emerged from the shoe store with a frown, and Buu emerged from the book store with a childish cackle as an eldery man in a Priest`s uniform ran by, several flaming sets of women`s underwear dangling off of his form. To put it mildly, chaos reigned.   
  
"Let`s try that again," Cell suggested, bending forward only to pause and reach up, picking a flaming bra off of his crown and tossing it aside before regaining his composure and bending forward again. Buu grinned.   
  
The shockwave that followed turned the mall into a crater. There wasn`t even a visible explosion.   
  
_ Dead cell, dead cell   
  
_ Cell emerged from the crater first, tearing up and out of the dusted street bordering the crater, covered in a thick layer of burnt material. The equally dirty, slightly stinkier looking Buu followed in the span of a few seconds, and in the blink of an eye, both had phased out, just as a dozen or so impact shockwaves sounded from several blocks away, tearing chunks out of the street and buildings, killing a few of the remaining bystanders and generally knocking things over left and right.   
  
And then they reappeared again. Both were clean now, bar a bit of pink fluid down Buu`s chin, and several impact wounds to Cell Junior`s carapce and a busted cheek. _"This is bad... He`s trying to keep me off balance and he`s doing a good job of it,"_ Cell thought, gathering his wits with the momentary reprieve granted by Buu giggling to itself. "This is fun!"   
  
"Then come get me and have more fun!" Cell grinned dementedly. Buu blinked. _"Come get me... That`s right..."   
  
_ Buu dove forward, and Cell seemed to split in half almost instantly. Buu flashed between the two Cells, just as a third blasted up out of the ground and delivered a massive uppercut into his chin. The three were quick to rejoin though, and the reformed Cell was even quicker to gather up ki into his right hand and throw it out towards Buu, flattened with fingers closed and straightened. "Big Bang Attack!" Cell shouted, just as the beam shockwaved out of his palm and flashed through the air, viciously tearing Buu`s head straight off.   
  
_ "Five... Four... Three... Two..."   
  
_ Buu`s head sprang back into existence just as Cell had predicted, and Cell was already waiting for it, both hands now aimed towards Buu and the ki for his attack already gathered. Modifying techniques was such an insulting way to fight, but it worked better than one would think.   
  
"**_GALLICK GUN FIRE!!!_**"   
  
Buu reacted in kind, ripping it`s tail off and chucking it into the air as the beam hit, forcibly vaporizing Buu`s body right out of sight, just as the tail exploded into Buu`s actual shape and color, reforming him perfectly. _"Here`s hoping Goku and the others have perfected the Kame Hame Ha to make up for my version of the Gallick Gun,"_ Junior thought, crouching down somewhat. He wasn`t all that concerned really, but he was considerate enough to at least leave an opening if he was to be killed, however minor it might have seemed.   
  
Do note that the day Cell thought of himself as a hero would be the day that Hell flooded with fuzzy pink cotton candy creatures singing and dancing for universal peace. As far as he was concerned, Cell was just doing this because it had been _his_ mission to kill Son Gohan, not to mention the minor fact that he was basically defending what he considered his 'territory.' Cell honestly didn`t care what happened to the world`s population but damn it, this was _his_ homeworld, _his_ training grounds.   
  
And Buu just plain didn`t care. Grunting annoyedly, the creature took a deep breath and then spat out a stream of air so harsh that Cell had to jump up and out of the way while the gust of air sheered into the pavement and gouged straight down into the sewer, hitting a gas line and causing the street to erupt into a ball of fire when a combination of all the bad things in Buu`s breath and wind sheer ignited the gas.   
  
Huddled alone beneath an overturned bench, Babidee was seriously considering if he`d made a grievous error in judgement about his preference for being near Buu`s fights.   
  
A crash and the two were fighting again. Cell aggressively countered every move Buu made, playing off of it`s childlike mind and slipping past it`s defenses every time Buu made an attack. For all of his effort, he`d succeeded in giving Buu a slight bruise on the forehead and a lengthy impact mark running down the center of the chest. Cell dove back, tricking Buu into using all of it`s momentum and swinging itself out of balance. Moments came to spare and Cell touched down with both hands held up above his head.   
  
A shout and Cell`s second modified version of the Kikouho - jokingly dubbed the Taiyogenki Kikouho for how Cell gathered power for it - came into play. There was a blindingly bright flash of light, and then hundreds of the surviving people in the city, and even Cell himself, felt a little drained. The sun even looked a bit darker for a few seconds, and then Junior thrust his hands forward in classical Kikouho stance, firing off the attack in a blast of what looked a visual distortion in the shape of a beam. Buu howled and tumbled along, body singing away, along with an increasingly burnt looking trench carved into the street.   
  
A Capsule Corporation building was Buu`s - or what was left of him - ultimate destination. Smashing through the glass-and-steel framed doors like a bullet through paper, Buu`s scorched chunk smacked into the floor and crashed straight into the basement of the building, hitting into one of the power generators and detonating it.   
  
Junior watched grimly as the building rattled briefly and then burst into flames, collapsing in on itself after a few seconds. It was really amazing the city was even intact at this point, but it was still something of a sight to behold. There were a few seconds of silence and then...   
  
Still silence. Cell paused, feeling for Buu`s ki again and finding him going in multiple directions at once. _"Great... Just. Great."   
  
Sick in the head, living but dead, hear what I said  
Learn a lesson from the almighty dread   
  
_ "It looks like Cell`s holding his own," Piccolo commented dryly. Bulma twitched. She was, by default, entrusting the defense of her hometown and the area around it to a blue bodied homicidal maniac who`d been hellbent on killing the oldest son of one of her best friends for at least six years. It was almost enough to make one gag, but Bulma did the more logical thing, and she also did the typical Bulma thing while doing it.   
  
She ran outside of the room, hauled it to the edge of the Look Out, leaned over the edge and emptied her lunch out. Puke was raining from Heaven, the Earth had effectively put it`s fate in the hands of someone who barely gave a damn about the people on it and on top of all that, they`d postponed the Tenkaichi Budoukai _and_ cancelled the Zemmy Awards. It was indeed one of those days...   
  
_ Jah nutty warrior, nothing's scarier  
Kids are getting sick like malaria  
Situation get harrier, throwing up all types of barriers  
I'm tellin ya the kids are getting singled out  
Let me hear the dead cells shout  
  
_ Junior concentrated vividly, trying to locate an individual piece of Buu to lash out at. For two minutes, he`d been standing there, arms raised and bent at his sides, eyes shut and aura ablaze, hot with golden flame and random-yet-patterned bolts of electricity. Seconds more passed before Cell opened his eyes in annoyance. He still couldn`t detect an individual area to attack, Buu must have learned how to mask his ki or something.   
  
And then it actually hit him. It wasn`t just the knowledge either, it was a fist extending out of the ground underneath his feet and breaking into his chin, moving with such force that it tore away the concrete of the streets around the pair, leaving Cell, who flipped himself upside down and glared downward, with just enough of a visual to determine what Buu had done.   
  
"You elastic bastard," he growled, seeing Buu had stretched itself out perfectly underneath Cell in such a way that it had confused his ki detection abilities. He couldn`t isolate one ki from the rest because they were all literally one and the same. Hiding a bit of despair with an outer layering of annoyance, Cell righted himself, watching as Buu did the same by retracting itself back to normal, an action which caused an area of three square blocks in any direction around it to collapse down by almost fifteen feet. Buildings toppled over, streets collapsed, power lines fell, cars and gas lines exploded. It was utter pandemonium.   
  
"What`s elastic?" Buu asked. Cell answered with a friendly smile. "Come on up and I`ll show you..." He offered. Buu curiously glanced at it`s feet and did as told, floating up off of the ground and glancing into Cell`s open hand. "I don`t see anything..." Buu complained. "Maybe you need a closer look then..."   
  
Cell made good on his words unexpectedly, lashing out and smacking Buu on the front of the face, only to sink his fingers into Buu`s soft face, yanking him back and literally tearing his face off before delivering a swift kick into the back of the head, using the time that bought him to ball Buu`s removed face up and throw it to the ground, which it bounced back from and made it`s way into Cell`s hand again, which allowed him to ball it up even tighter.   
  
"Batter up, fatso!" Cell shouted, assuming the stance of a baseball pitcher. Yamcha, who was watching this, probably felt something of a mix of pride and curiosity that a major part of his personality - a love of baseball - had apparently manifested in the survivor of a group of creatures that had come incredibly close to killing him. Buu flailed it`s limbs around and suddenly lurched forward as a disgusting bulge came into existence at it`s chest, stretching forward to a baseball-sized point at the end.   
  
In just the elastic manner that Cell had guessed would happen, Buu recovered, it`s face seeming to slide back into existence with a low squishing sound. "That was mean," Buu pouted, turning around to face a decidedly unamused Cell Junior. "And blowing up cities and eating people is any better?" Junior asked sarcastically. Buu paused, staring at him.   
  
_ Dead cell, dead cell   
  
_ "**_JUST KILL HIM ALREADY BUU!_**" Babidee shrieked from his new vantage point, hidden behind a small, broken up wall that had once been the side of an appartment building. "Okay, okay... No more playing now," Buu said annoyedly, bending over slightly and charging forward. Cell was taken aback, barely able to jump out of the way and avoid getting smashed into a lump of crumpled armor and muscle on the ground by Buu.   
  
"Finally getting serious," Junior mused, taking off from the ground and working a scenario into mind. _"Going by his mental state and the fact he outpaces the hell out of me, he should appear in front of me right about..."   
  
_ Cell lashed out with a kick, catching Buu right in the mouth with his right foot, twisting his entire body to drill the attack in deeper. Buu drifted back in surprise, but Cell Junior wasn`t going to give him time to recover, charging forward and smashing his elbow into Buu`s gut, only to rebound and twist himself around and upside down, his feet finding their mark on Buu`s chin while his hands sought to grab one of the creature`s legs, only to find that Buu was more prepared than he thought. Cell drifted back, blood trickling from a boot-sized gash in his forehead.   
  
Righting himself, Cell let out a groan, placing a hand to his forehead and willing himself not to heal. A cut was minor, he had to save his energy for when it could be useful for more things than just an oversized papercut. "Bye bye," Buu cheerfully waved, just as a dozen or so ki blasts shot out from his head. Cell dropped straight downward and found Buu`s tail waiting for him, arcing gracefully down behind the creature and curling up from the ground like an uppercut.   
  
Junior let out a gag and flew back up, right into Buu`s waiting fist. Again, his crown shattered on his head, but Buu was quicker still, drawing his fist back and striking into Cell`s arm, snapping it and crumpling a large part of the other`s bicep, only to draw back again and punch off one of Cell`s wings in a gruesome snapping sound.   
  
_ "So much for that plan,"_ Cell thought, just as Buu`s right foot stabbed into his stomach and plowed right through to the small of his back. Junior didn`t scream though. Not out of an inability to do so, more out of sheer defiance. Of the many things Cell Junior had inherited from his father and any one of the dozen or so warriors who`d gone into his make, the most repetitive trait was pride. Virtually every warrior that was the basis of Cell and his children had an overwhelming sense of pride, even Yamcha and Krillin. Junior didn`t let his pride get into his way, mind you, he was also more logical and cunning than that.   
  
But it was still enough that he didn`t grant Buu the pleasure of an agonized scream. Cell`s tongue began to bleed as he glared up at Buu`s smiling face, mainly since he was biting down on it so hard. Buu giggled.   
  
"This is fun!"   
  
_ Born with no soul, lack of control  
Cut from the mold of the anti-social  
Plug them in and turn them on  
Process the data  
Make yourself the bomb   
  
_ "Well... I suppose you asked for this," Cell growled, tearing off a chunk of his tongue in the process. Buu cocked his head to the side and drew back, punching Cell in the face before shaking his leg around. Junior grunted, but did not scream. Buu stopped and glanced down at Babidee with a tilt of the head. "Want me to kill him now?" Buu asked.   
  
_ "Just keep talkin` fatso,"_ Cell thought dazedly, making his plan and winding up with his good arm. "**OF COURSE I DO!**" Babidee shouted in reply. _"I love being a regenerate..." _  
  
Cell yelled out a kiai, stunning Buu and allowing himself to break free, right as his fist came raining down across his own chest, plunging through his own carapaced hide and burrowing through the toughened flesh beneath. _"Where is it... Don`t have enough time for this right now!"_ Cell thought urgently, using the brief time to regenerate his other arm and use it to throw up a barrier. Buu howled and charged right back, slamming the full force of all of it`s weight down across Cell Junior`s barrier, gradually beginning to force his way through it. Cell expanded the barrier in response, but he wasn`t going to try and keep it up for long. Babidee shouted out a curse and ran down the burning street, trying to avoid getting crushed and disintegrated by the field of energy that Cell was throwing out.   
  
_ "**Found it!**"_ Cell exclaimed in thought, gently grabbing a hold of a familiar lump in his chest. Buu grunted and pushed harder, stretching and warping the barrier as he imploded his way into it. "You know what Vegeta`s - **_AGH_** - problem was?!" Cell asked, howling out as he tore the lump straight out of his chest and then allowed the barrier to fall.   
  
  
"What the heck?!" Goku yelped at the sight of Cell ripping out what looked like his own heart. "Did he just do what I think he did?" He asked. "... I don`t believe this. He`s going to try and cheat his way to victory," Piccolo explained with a gape of disbelief. Goten and Trunks were both as silent as they had been for several minutes now.   
  
Outside the room, the mood was mostly the same. No one on the Look Out really believed what they were seeing anymore, it was just too outrageous. Cell Junior had been a constant enemy for years, he`d never attacked them but when he showed up, he often managed to rile everyone up enough that something bad happened. To boot, his vendetta with Gohan had almost assuredly marked him as an enemy to virtually everyone.   
  
And now he was going to do something that was actually heroic in a bastardly way.   
  
This really _was_ one of those days...   
  
_ Stop pointing fingers cause we are the guilty  
Of clean cut lines and truth that's filthy  
Believe what is the root of the word  
Out comes lie when it's cut into thirds  
  
_ Buu stood annoyedly over Cell Junior, who was himself lying in a body imprint deep enough that it was pitch black at the bottom. For several seconds, the two had dueled, even though Cell only used one arm in the process. Buu thought it strange but in his stage, he was too annoyed to care, impatiently sticking his hands at his sides and tapping it`s foot on the ground. "Come out, come out!" Buu demanded.   
  
"-_Hame **HA!!!**_"   
  
Buu fell back in surprise more than actual pain, falling onto it`s back as the beam of blue energy flared out of the crater and smacked him in the face. It hadn`t done anything to harm him, mind you, but it _had_ caught him off gaurd and sent him to his back as a result. Cell knew he`d only be down for a few seconds, and he used the time pretty well, phasing into view a good few dozen yards up and away from Buu, throwing the lump he held in his hand out to sea. _  
  
"Here`s hoping I put enough energy into it,"_ Cell thought, willing himself to stay in his present form. It wasn`t easy to exist in two places at once but the bloodied looking, dying fighter didn`t care either way. "I asked you a question!" Cell sneered down at Buu, who bounced back up and glared at him. "Do you know what Vegeta`s problem was, Buu?!" Junior demanded, his aura flaring up as a result.   
  
"Do you?!" He demanded again. Buu growled and launched off of the ground, but Cell was a step ahead, dropping out of the way and looking after Buu, his arm literally extending out over twenty feet to latch onto Buu`s head-tail. Grappling on tightly, Cell constricted the arm violently in a way not unlike what Nameks could do when they had to extend themselves out to make an attack. Cell`s aura enveloped Buu`s form as the blue fighter latched himself onto his enemy`s back, holding him in a strangle hold while constricting his legs tightly around Buu`s waist.   
  
"_Well_?!" Cell shouted into Buu`s ear, ignoring the fact that his own blood was now pouring from the chest wound as internal dams broke. It was only a matter of time now, before Cell`s body finished degenerating and his control waned to the extreme on the lump. "Get off! _**GET OFF!!!**_" Buu howled, flipping itself over and dropping down to the ground hard enough that an even larger impact crater consumed the crater from Cell`s barrier, levelling several of the few remaining buildings and killing even more of the city`s bewildered populace. Babidee had blessedly made his way up into the air, resolving to ignore getting involved and throwing up a barrier.   
  
"I guess not... Allow me to explain," Cell offered with a lunatic calm to his voice, even as Buu`s immense weight crushed parts of his body, snapping off one wing entirely and crushing the remains of the second.   
  
_ I don't belive what my eyes behold, no  
I don't believe what my ears are told, no  
  
_ "You`ve got to be kidding me..." Goku muttered in disbelief. "I suppose more of us survived in Cell than I thought," Piccolo commented in reply, barely hiding a slight smirk.   
  
_ Sezin' this opportunity to speak  
I'm saying something don't turn your fucking cheek   
  
_ "**_HE WASN`T DOING IT RIGHT!!!_**" Cell screamed right into Buu`s ear before bursting into laughter. Again, the aura of golden flame snapped into existence, accompanied brightly by neon blue bolts of excess energy, just as the ground began rattling. Unlike Vegeta, Cell was at his limit already. Unlike Vegeta, Cell had little trouble breaking through that limit for his kamikaze attempts. Unlike Vegeta, Cell had a suicide bomb mechanism - entirely biological - in the side of his chest opposite his heart.   
  
Unlike Cell Senior, Cell Junior had a less expansive suicide bomb. Rather than blow up the planet and any one of the surrounding worlds, the moon and probably the local sun, Jupiter and the asteroid belt, Cell Junior`s suicide bomb was concentrated.   
  
In effect, what he was doing was akin to creating a mile wide super nova with no follow-up black hole, no insane levels of radiation and no threat of tearing apart the planet or it`s atmosphere. It was perfect. Would you expect any less from the surviving child of perfection itself?   
  
"**_SAYONARA, YOU FAT SON OF A BITCH!!!_**" Cell cackled, just as he felt the mechanism in his chest, which had somehow survived being crushed, snap itself into working order. Ki flooded through his body, coming from a well of energy that seemed to know no upper limit, no ending point, no bottom and no safety breaks. The entire crater began to rattle around, rock tore out of the ground and an ethereal golden glow started to form over any shadow in the area, just as Cell`s body started inflating again, his arms simply extending with his legs to continue holding Buu in place.   
  
_ Dead Cell! Dead Cell!   
  
_ The explosion to follow was visible from space. The entire world seemed to turn dark in comparison to the enormous flash of light to follow as the city vanished in a pillar of unearthly gold ringed by shockwaves of hellish flame, expanding outward by a mile. The rings extended out even further, with the one closest to the ground violently consuming the entire city and everything in it but a singular figure in a black bubble, shielding his eyes as the force of the blast hurled him up into the stratosphere, flinging him around like a rag doll.   
  
Further shockwaves followed as the blast continued expanding it`s way off of the planet, stretching out into deep space and bypassing the current moon, which was burnt badly as the ringing effect cut mile long trenches across it`s side. The blast continued even after that, roaring out past Mars and the asteroid belt, streaking through Jupiter`s orbit and missing by a half a year, passing by Neptune and Uranus both, plowing between the orbits of Pluto and it`s moon/partner before leaving the solar system entirely.   
  
And dozens of miles out to see, a singular lump of extreme significance came into play, soaring through the air before bursting open to reveal a blue carapaced figure, coughing out blue gunk, which he also happened to be covered in. It had been a fairly desperate gamble, of course, but Cell Junior had the plan laid out right off of the bat. Now all he could do was hope he survived long enough to regain all of the energy he`d just expended. Bouncing off of the water several times, Cell barely possessed the strength to fan his limbs out and flip himself upright during his last skip over the surface of the ocean before the effects of drag finally kicked in.   
  
Cell slid onward, drifting to a slow crawl, sprawled out on his back at sea. It was hard to even open his eyes, but he smiled despite his present situation.   
  
"Got him, Son..." Cell said to himself with a grin as the secondary shockwaves of the explosion, still plainly visible across half the planet, tore over the surface of the water, throwing him around like a rag doll.   
  
_

End Part Fourteen  
  


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**Author`s Note:** Welcome back Cystic! Where ya been?  
  
Bweh... Hope you enjoyed this little war between Buu and CJ, had it planned for a while and am I done with everyone`s (least) favorite blue skinned son of a bitch? **NO** *Evil laugh.*   
  
Oh, and diamongirl, get ungrounded soon! >[  
  
Sh33p out, see ya next time! 


	16. All I Want

  
  
**Disclaimer:** Don`t own DBZ.  
  


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**Hybrid Theory: Generations   
**_All I Want   
  
  
  
_

Five minutes ago, Kibito had decided it was time to give up on watching Gohan train and start trying to convince the Kaioshin into doing as he had advised. Kibito did this because he loved the universe - even if he held a relatively low view of the individual inhabitants. True, he feared death, but any sane god did. Gods above the level of planetary Kami tended to go to a different kind of afterlife, so different that Kibito could only barely recollect the brief glimpse he`d had of it. All he remembered was the name of the Judge for that afterlife, Akira.   
  
But a fear of death wasn`t the reason. Kibito may have loved the universe and he may have respected Shin enough that he would try to convince him to do as he had advised, but these interests conflicted. The truth was that while Kibito respected the Kaioshin, he loved the universe enough to go over his master`s head at the drop of a hat if it meant the universe would be better off. He was only trying to convince the Kaioshin to listen to his advice because he was going to do it either way and he`d rather not disrespect the last surviving Kaioshin in existence.   
  
That, was five minutes ago.   
  
At present, both Kibito and the Kaioshin were gaping off in the direction of the entrance to the lower realm. Their arguement, formerly quite intense and quite fast paced, had hit a brick wall with the force of a watermelon shot out of a cannon. For five minutes, they`d been flooded by the feeling of a ki so intense that it could have only been equated to an artificial super nova, controlled so perfectly that it was a desperation attack that was also marked with suicide.   
  
"What in the name of Heaven was that?" Kibito muttered in disbelief. It was the first sentence spoken coherently by either god since the initial moments of the blast. "It seems as though the Earth`s remaining defenders are going all out," Shin replied, still in shock. "So... It would seem," Kibito replied, straightening up and gulping down a breath or two. "It`s not going to be enough," Shin stated. "Whoever just did that wasted their efforts."   
  
"I see."   
  
"This is not a good sign."   
  
"Now do you agree?"   
  
"... Kibito," Shin said in an authoritative tone. "Kaioshin, I`m going to do it anyway. You can either agree and he can do it with a slightly higher chance of survival or he`ll go through it - literally - lacking any chance in Hell."   
  
"Kibito, I don`t agree with what you`re planning. No mortal should have to go through with that while alive," Shin grimaced. "You said I underestimated him, are you now admitting to overestimating his strength?" Kibito asked, slowly trying to lead Shin into agreement. The smaller god snorted. "Placing the living in Hell is breaking every rule in the book." "There isn`t a book."   
  
"No," Shin said. "Why?" Kibito asked. "**_No_**," Shin said again, even more authoritative than before. "He isn`t gaining power fast enough! You know that, I know that, he probably knows that, **_please_** Master Kaioshin, listen to one with more experience for once!" Kibito yelled. Shin let off only a glare. "If he doesn`t survive this, I`ll have your hide."   
  
"It`s not my choice if he survives or doesn`t, I`m only setting him on his way. He has to master that sword and the power that comes with it somehow, this is the fastest way to do it - and the most effective in our present conditions," Kibito defended. Shin shrugged defeatedly and let out a groan, reaching up and rubbing his right temple. "Do it then. I don`t know how you expect someone to take Damion in the Frost Realm, even with the Zet Sword, but I suppose you`re right."   
  
"Good," Kibito stated, glancing off to the horizon. "And yes, go ahead and change his clothing to better suit the conditions he`ll face."   
  
"Excellent," Kibito replied, vanishing in a flash of light. Shin stood alone on the steps of the small palace he called home, glaring heatedly off towards the location Gohan was training in. "I hope this works," he muttered to himself, feeling as though he`d just dropped every living creature into a mass burial pit and started throwing dirt on them.   
  
_ Day after day your home life's a wreck  
The powers that be just breathe down your neck   
  
_ The last clump of dirt shattered into a molten vapor, vanishing an instant later as Gohan faded out of Super Saiyan and exhaustedly fell to his knees, propped up on the sword resting his forehead against the back of his left hand. "Heh... I guess he wasn`t so bad after all," Gohan mused at his - former? - rival. He hadn`t stopped the training exercise even as Cell`s ki flooded his senses. It`d taken him off gaurd but he`d quickly blocked it out to finish his business with the tornado, hacking and stabbing away as best he could.   
  
"Crazy blue bastard..." He smirked, quietly pulling himself up to his feet and resting his entire weight on the sword. Sweat hung dully on his face, and all over the rest of him beneath the clothing her wore. His hands felt raw but the hilt of a normal ancient sword wasn`t exactly meant for ergonomic comfort, it was meant for grip. If that had a habit of wearing away on the skin of the hand, then oh well.   
  
Gohan`s ears faintly detected the fizzling sound behind him, and his eyes accutely noticed that he`d gained a second shadow for a few seconds. "Prepare yourself," Kibito said with haste. Gohan turned around, dragging the sword so that he could face Kibito with the weapon to his side. "For what?" The demi-saiyan asked. "A journey," the god stated cryptically, reaching out and grabbing Gohan by the shoulder. "Hey, wai-"   
  
He never finished the sentence.   
  
_ You get no respect, you get no relief  
You gotta speak up and yell out your piece   
  
_ "-t a second," Gohan managed to get out as he found himself standing on an opaque looking crystalline hilltop in a barren wasteland. It looked mythical, there was no other way to describe it. Orange clouds as far as the eye could see in three directions, bordered by black, stormy clouds at the very edge of the fourth. While one side of this area seemed _just_ a few degrees too hot to be very comfortable in, Gohan could clearly identify heavy snow and fog on the area beneath the black clouds.   
  
"Welcome to Hell, Son Gohan," Kibito answered the unspoken question, glancing down towards the sounds of chaos hundreds of feet below. It was only then that Gohan realized he wasn`t standing on a hill, he was standing on a cliff. Below was a mass of movement, and explosions flared within as the rock beneath the tip of the Zet Sword began to crack. "Why am I in Hell? I`m not dead yet and I didn`t... Oh, wait... Did I?" Gohan asked, genuinely concerned as to whether or not he was going to be left here.   
  
"No," Kibito replied, easing the other. It was a brief calm though. "You have been brought here to hone the skill you must possess with the Zet Sword. In the distance lies the Frost Realm, and atop that mountain lies the Aisu fortress of Or-Helkh, the Day of Cold. Within lies an old path to the Frozen Underworld, and there..." Kibito pointed out, face set into the grim expression that had become his trademark.   
  
"There is Damion`s Palace."   
  
"Damion?"   
  
"Long ago, during the Mythical Years of this Time, there were kingdoms of gods and the semi-divine among mortals, two such kingdoms were the Earth and the Moon. Long before the future King that you met, even longer before he and the future Queen`s present incarnations, there existed two brothers. Damion and Endymion."   
  
"Hold up, you`ve lost me," Gohan requested. "Endymion and Damion? Future King and Queen? Huh?"   
  
"Don`t bother hiding the voyage you made as a boy through the Passage of Time. Given my ranking, I`m supposed to know these things," Kibito ordered. "... The... Those two, the Chibas... They were past or... Wait, future or pres-" "At this point in time, they were past incarnations of Endymion and Serenity. A prince of Earth and a princess of the Moon."   
  
"Eeee... I mooched offa royalty and didn`t even know it..."   
  
"_Anyway_," Kibito interrupted before continuing. "Endymion became engaged, as was the custom of the day, that made him the heir apparent to the Throne of Earth. Unfortunately, Damion lacked the innate goodness of his brother and sought to lead a coup. The two did battle and Endymion`s father, with the aid of the Queen of the da-" "They`re related?" Gohan interrupted. "Who?" Kibito asked. "Endeemy-on and Serenity," Gohan replied. "Endymion is the proper pronounciation, and no, they weren`t. The Queen of the day was just a friend of Endymion`s father, the King of Earth."   
  
"Oh. Okay, go on."   
  
"As I was saying, Endymion and Damion did battle. Endymion defeated his brother but could not strike the killing blow, leaving it to his father and the Queen of the Moon to sentence Damion to confinement in the Chamber of Dreams. Time passed. Damion became even more corrupt, eventually escaping the chamber and setting free an evil known as Queen Metallia, wh-" "Queen Metallia?" "**_WILL YOU QUIT INTERRUPTING ME ALREADY?! I`M TRYING TO BE DRAMATIC HERE!!!_**"   
  
Gohan fell over. "Alright, alright!" He yelped, only to have the sword tip over from it`s unstable balancing point and flop onto his stomach, broadside so as to not cleave him in half. Gohan let out a yelp and shouted out.   
  
"**_HOLY SHIT! THIS THING`S SITTING ON MY BLADDER!!!_**"   
  
Kibito grimaced. Again.   
  
_ "The universe... Lies in the hands... Of a total idiot,"_ the god thought, mournfully rubbing his forehead as Gohan squirmed free and ducked behind a rock. He reappeared several minutes later, re-tying the sash of his belt and complaining about ogres with no respect for privacy.   
  
"I`m going to try and continue now..."   
  
"Go ahead," Gohan nodded, patiently heaving the Zet Sword back up to stand it`s tip. "Queen Metallia betrayed him shortly before trying to crush the two kingdoms. Damion was sent to Hell, alive and yet, grievously wounded. As the years past, and Damion resigned himself to his fate, a growing darkness filled his heart. A century after first arriving in Hell, Damion assumed the role of adventuring thief, stealing dozens of vile artifacts from the creatures who inhabit this damned location, many of them twisted relics of Heaven, and corrupted even further."   
  
Gohan gulped. "Sounds like a pretty mean guy," he commented. "Indeed. Damion`s once gray heart has blackened considerably throughout the thousands of years he`s been imprisoned here, as have his ever growing magiks. Damion has had millennia to improve the dark arts, further corrupting himself even more in the process. His immense treasure trove of relics is a villainous temptation, none so matched as the blade he weilds today."   
  
"And that would be?"   
  
"At one time it was known as Excalibur, now though... It is known as the Frostreaver."   
  
"... Goody," Gohan commented sarcastically. "Dabura was the strongest but I`m guessing Damion`s the biggest asshole," he mused. "If that is how you wish to view it," Kibito replied. "Am I going to have a guide there or anything?" Gohan asked, watching as lightning flared around the massive fortress that resided on the even larger mountain. A bolt of ki flashed overhead and slammed into the 'ceiling' of Hell, detonating with no effect on the clouds. "Assuming he hasn`t forgotten," Kibito replied, gazing down at the increasingly bloody battlefield below.   
  
"What`s going on down there anyway?" Gohan asked. "Hell is not a restful place, it never has been. Forty years ago, it became even more restless. A tyrant called Frieza-" "- Blew up the Saiyan homeworld. How many ended up down here?"   
  
"While before, the Aisu and the Saiyans had begrudgingly gotten along, when roughly seven billion angry Saiyans arrived in one day, and told their ancestors what had taken place, relations that were originally just sour became violent. They`ve been at war ever since, the Aisu defending their mountain fortress, the Saiyans attacking from the Oblique Forests," Kibito answered, motioning to a field of black stone off in the distance.   
  
"How many of the Saiyans and Aisu are down here?" Gohan asked out of mild curiosity, watching a pair of golden auras become faintly visible in the midst of the chaos down on the battlefield. A dozen Aisu warriors, unconcious and on that point where they should have died but couldn`t due to Hell`s laws, spilled out into the air before he and Kibito, crashing into the jagged, indestructable cliff wall and falling back to the battlefield below. "80% of either race, though both are shrinking since the populations of the living parts of either race continue to grow," Kibito replied, looking down.   
  
"The Saiyans aren`t extinct?"   
  
"There are two or three offshoots, at _least_."   
  
"I think I might`ve met someone from one of them," Gohan mused, watching as a familiar red haired oaf charged by and dove into battle. "Recoom. Nice to know that ugly bastard got what he deserved," Gohan smirked. "Yes, that figure that just passed us is a member of one of the sub-races," Kibito replied.   
  
"So... When`s my guide gonna show up?" Gohan asked, still keeping the sword upright, even as the ground beneath it seemed to struggle against it`s weight. Indestructable terrain wasn`t exactly broken easily. "I believe that`s him, somewhere down there," Kibito answered, pointing to the brighter of the two golden auras in the mess of gray, orange, red, blue, purple and greenish tinged flames, amongst the slightly smaller mess of bloodstained ground and screaming warriors.   
  
The war between the Saiyans and the Aisu had been cold for centuries prior to it`s current boiling point. While the Saiyans in Hell kept finding more powerful forms of Oozaru and, for those with the proper mix of luck and geneology, Super Saiyan, sometimes combining the two, the Aisu had simply kept finding or creating more and more powerful transformations of their own. By now there were over thirty variations on Oozaru, fifteen variants on Super Saiyan and the level(s) after it, and at least two combinations that one of the fifty five Vegetas(who`d had their own civil war for the right to be King) and the several thousand Super Saiyans before them had put together through the eons.   
  
The Aisu had just as many transformations, there were even counters and counter-counters developed to moves like the Death Ball and the Artificial Moon.   
  
There was a familiar howl and an oversized Aisu flopped on his back behind Gohan and Kibito, twitching violently and bleeding all over the place. Purple and black, this one resembled a far larger, far uglier Frieza at his third form. Fangs that were cracked, a few broken, hung on bloodied gums, a forked devil`s tongue hung a foot long and quarter of a foot wide across the side of it`s ugly, bloodied, bruised and cracked face. A black horn - at least it was black at the parts weren`t sprayed with dark red or purple - rose up off of the space just above and between the downed giant`s eyes.   
  
And then came a series of wheezes before a bruised looking figure surrounded by gold touched down. He was like a blast from the Saiyan past, a vengeful wraith who Gohan recognized but didn`t all at once. Three scars adorned his face, two of which criss-crossed, the third, which was obviously made post-death in Hell with some sort of enchanted weapon, slid villainously down from his forehead to his cheekbone in a similar manner to the one which Yamcha had one his face, the key difference being that this scar was deeper than Yamcha`s, and darker. The figure`s most striking details were his stature, he stood like a god at about the same height to Gohan, maybe an inch taller or shorter, with golden hair risen up like some incorruptable flame of vengeance.   
  
And then there was the Saiyan Battle Armor. It was different from Nappa, Raditz or Vegeta`s, or the set Gohan still kept somewhere in his closet. Black pants, armored boots, fingerless gloves and gauntlets of the same style and a black battle jacket that lacked shoulder pads but still featured two prominent pieces extending down from either hip. The last detail was the strangest, familiar yet not at the same time.   
  
A cloth-turned-bandana, covered in dried blood, wrapped once around the figure`s head and then tied at the back.   
  
"As late as you always are," Kibito muttered at the Saiyan. "So sue me if traffic was heavy," the warrior stated as his aura dissipated into the already toasted air in Hell and his hair fell down into a familiar scattered mess, fading to black moments later. "That you Toma?"   
  
"Toma?" Gohan asked. "Breh Bardock, Son Gohan. Son Gohan, meet your grandfather, Breh Bardock," Kibito stated. "Uh... Hey there," Gohan blinked. "So ya kept your word, eh, Toma? Reincarnated as one of my grand kids just to piss me off," Bardock smirked. "Eh?" Gohan asked, utterly confused. "Am I familiar?" Bardock asked. "You look exactly like my dad with a tan and Yamcha`s scars," Gohan replied dryly.   
  
"Does the headband look familiar?" Bardock asked. "... Kinda," Gohan admitted. "Bastard," Bardock grinned, smacking Gohan on the shoulder before drawing him into a bearhug. "Can`t... Breathe..." Gohan mumbled. "Ah this is Hell, you won`t die unless... Wait," Bardock glanced up and then promptly let Gohan drop, causing the now purpled looking youth to collapse sideways, losing his grip on the sword and...   
  
"**_OW!!!_**"   
  
"You`re still whining, huh?" Bardock asked amusedly, leaning down and staring at his grand son. "Come on, it`s just a sword," he mocked, watching the sword rest flatly across Gohan`s chest. "This thing`s heavy!" Gohan complained trying to lift it in vain with one hand. Bardock almost fell over laughing, gingerly reaching down and taking hold of it. "So, how`s Celipa?" He asked while grabbing the weapon.   
  
His first attempt at picking it up failed miserably.   
  
"See?!" Gohan demanded, using his available hand to help Bardock pry the weapon off before springing back up to his feet and yanking it from the ground with both hands. The Zet Sword refused to budge after Gohan firmly planted the tip into the ground and steadied it`s weight with one hand.   
  
"Idiots..." Kibito muttered before speaking up. "Done now?" He asked. "Yeah," Gohan and Bardock replied in unison before Kibito held up his hands, placing one on Bardock`s shoulder and the other on Gohan`s forehead. The large pink god shouted and both were healed instantly, though both were also treated to different clothing. Gohan`s clothes felt and looked the same, but now they were cleaner, and his coat seemed a bit thicker, though it still lacked sleeves.   
  
The only real addition to his attire was a scabbard, buckled to his back in much the same way Mirai Trunks had kept his sword, though Gohan still held the Zet Sword to the ground with one hand. The only change to Bardock`s clothing was that his outfit now had a long sleeved shirt underneath the battle jacket he wore.   
  
"You`ll find that scabbard can and will hold the Zet Sword. It`s been enchanted," Kibito explained as an after thought, placing his hands behind his back and continuing. "Bardock, you know your mission, correct?" He asked. Bardock gave a nod. "Make sure To... Er, Gohan, get`s to Or-Helkh in one piece," Bardock stated. "No further though," he added. Breh Bardock was many things, and while it was true that he cared a great deal for friends and family, he wasn`t in the mood to face an eternity of torture for them. Death, sure, but the Aisu could be downright sadistic when it came to torturing prisoners, and in a place where no amount of pain and agony could grant you release...   
  
There was a crash of thunder in the distance Bardock glanced down at the chaos below. "Let`s hope no one in the battle notices us," he mused, jumping off of the cliff and clearing the distance over the battlezone before vanishing down into a blackened trench. Gohan glanced to Kibito worriedly.   
  
"Go," Kibito ordered. "Use caution though," he added. "Alright... Will these clothes keep me warm?" Gohan asked. "Warm? No. That`s impossible where you`re heading. From freezing to death? Yes," Kibito explained. "Joy," Gohan sardonically replied before heaving the Zet Sword back up off of the ground and somehow succeeding in getting the weapon into it`s scabbard. He almost choked though, removing the belt of the scabbard and placing it around his waist a few seconds later, only after making sure his sword wasn`t scraping into the ground or anything like that.   
  
"Go. Now," Kibito ordered again. Gohan gave a half handed salute and powered up, rocketing after Bardock since the added weight of the Zet Sword made it impossible to even try and jump the way his grandfather had.   
  
And on the cliff, it was Kibito`s turn to stare gravely at where the two Saiyans had vanished to, before an annoyed voice cleared it`s throat behind him.   
  
"I don`t have time for this, Passage wench," Kibito muttered, glancing over his shoulder at the woman who stood behind him, an oddly beautiful figure to be standing in the middle of Hell with a staff shaped like a key. "Then make time," Setsuna replied calmly. "That`s your job," Kibito replied. "No, my job is just gaurding it, just as your job is to gaurd the universe rather than make more of it," the green haired woman replied from her regal standing point on the cliff beside and behind Kibito, solemnly hopping down and coming to a stand next to him.   
  
"Tell me, Setsuna," Kibito began. "Will he succeed? You should know better than anyone..."   
  
"It`s against the rules to say so. All I can say is that you did the right thing _and_ the wrong thing," Setsuna replied. "How so?" Kibito growled. "Contrary to whoever had the notion that the sword`s true master was a Kaioshin, Gohan is the true master of that weapon. It`s literally a part of who he is," Setsuna explained. "I fail to see how a mere mortal can even hope to be the Zet Sword`s creator," Kaioshin replied. "Doesn`t that old myth you have say 'The Zet Sword was forged from the strengths of a child like none other?'" Setsuna asked.   
  
"Yes, but-" "But nothing. Gohan had a tail once, that Piccolo figure ripped it off and turned it into a sword," Setsuna stated with a cryptic smirk. "As Gohan grew older, the sword grew stronger. Eventually, some day, someone will repeat the effect and cast the weapon into the Passage of Time, where a Hizoru named Kaio will carry it back to the dawn of the First Time and... Well, I`d guess you know everything from there," Setsuna explained. "It fails to make sense how that makes him it`s master."   
  
"When the sword was removed, a large part of his hidden power went with it. He and a few others are the only ones who could ever hope to access the kind of power the sword contains, because it`s part of them," Setsuna stated. "When will it be broken?" Kibito asked grimly. He`d heard that part of the myth and the prophecy as well. "I`m not at a liberty to discuss that either," Pluto stated.   
  
"Will I at least be around to see if he destroys Buu?" Kibito asked. Setsuna failed to answer. "I`m guessing that`s a no," Kibito stated. "It`s neither a no, nor is it a yes," Setsuna replied. "Very well. How did I fail?"   
  
"The future is now in danger. If Gohan dies, I`ll have to repair the timeline again to make up for it, and if he dies by Damion`s hand using the Frostreaver..." Setsuna trailed off. "I... See. But you understand that it had to be done, right?" Kibito asked. Setsuna was, and always would be, older than he. Older, wiser and far more willing to lose things for the sake of the universe. "I can see why, but not that it absolutely had to be done."   
  
"And if I had not sent him down here?"   
  
"Buu would have absorbed him, and later, much later, Goku, Vegeta, Yuuchirou and the Buu you know now would have killed the real Buu in a battle on Kaioshin-kai," Setsuna explained. She had no problems with telling people exactly what would have happened if they`d already screwed up the chances of it taking place. "And now? Will Buu still absorb him?" Kibito asked. "Maybe he will, maybe he won`t. Maybe you`ll live, maybe you`ll die, and maybe this is all but a fleeting dream of a mad man with an overexpansive imagination and the tools to use it," Setsuna replied with a shrug.   
  
"Part of me begs to ask whether or not you`re upset because of his ties to the soul of your daughter," Kibito muttered. He knew, vaguely, certain things that he probably shouldn`t have known. "If it did, you would have never existed," Setsuna replied. Kibito glanced towards where the woman should have been standing, ready to make a harsh reply of his own.   
  
Setsuna had left though. Wherever Gaurdians of Time went, Kibito wished he could follow, if only to smack some sense into the current one. Frowning for the thousandth time today, Kibito vanished out of Hell in a blinding ball of light, just as a dozen or so Aisu and one of the hundred or more Legendary Super Saiyans(a different breed from ordinary Super Saiyans, they were rarer, became stronger faster and held no limits on their power compared to the normal variety) slammed into the surface of the cliff, trading blows and insults left and right.   
  
_ So back off your rules  
Back off your jive  
Cause I'm sick of not living  
To stay alive  
  
_ "Where are we going?!" Gohan yelled over the distant echo of an insanely large explosion in the distance, outside of the increasingly cold trench that he and Bardock were descending into. "Their supposedly secret escape tunnel!" Bardock shouted back. "It should only be a few more miles down before we get there, two gaurds will probably be waiting for us but I can handle both!" The older Saiyan explained, still nose diving down. "I`m not too shabby either ya know!" Gohan defended, speeding himself up and deactivating his aura before flipping himself upright and allowing the added weight of the Zet Sword to keep him accelerating at the same rate as Bardock.   
  
"Unless you`ve killed things like Frieza, you`re _very_ shabby!" Bardock replied. "I`ve killed things ten times worse!" Gohan defended. "Repeatedly no less!" He added. "Fine, I`ll take one, you take the other!" Bardock shouted. With a loud rumble, the entire trench shook and found itself illuminated bright read as another insane explosion went off overhead. "Aisujin Death Ball!" Bardock reported loudly without even looking back to get a visual.   
  
Both Saiyans landed with crashes in front of the surprised pair of gaurds, who differed from each other greatly. One of them was a bright red color by nature, though the lighting drowned that out, the other was a dark gray and black color. Both were in their basic, true forms rather than power hiding or expanding transformations, so they were dealt with easily. Gohan proved his word, caving in the head of one of the Aisu, while Bardock pounding the second repeatedly with a hail of fists heavy enough to shatter mountains. In the brief melee, neither Gohan, nor Bojack changed forms into anything stronger.   
  
Both were downed in seconds as a gust of frigid air zipped through the now darkly illuminated area. "How much further?" Gohan asked, scratching his palm for a moment. Bardock replied differently from what Gohan expected. Rather than calmly replying like Gohan had thought, pointing out an entrance or an exit or anything like that, Bardock powered up a small ki blast and threw it straight into the section of the trench wall between the two gaurds, changing aim and doing so again twice, one to either side.   
  
The result was that the wall had vaporized in a small explosion, revealing an iced over path that curved upward, with an upside down starcase as part of the scenery. "Follow me," he ordered, jabbing his fingers into the snowed over wall of the room and climbing his way up with Gohan not more than a few steps behind. The two must have moved up through the tightening spiral for almost an hour, encountering resistance only at the top when Bardock kicked over the the back wall of the throne room.   
  
The two had been expecting a fight. What they were treated to was an absolute blood bath. The walls, the floor, the ceiling, all of it had been stained crimson or purple, and the sounds of a hauntingly familiar maniacal laugh echoed in the distance as an Aisu warrior dove around the corner and, without noticing Gohan or Bardock, threw the huge ice doors shut, using his tail to lash the ice lock into place. The warrior was injured badly from the looks of things, standing there bunched forward slightly with a wheeze.   
  
Then the doors began to rumble. Then the doors began the shake. The funny thing about Or-Helkh was that the ice had so frozen and been enchanted at least twice a week so many times over that little in the palace-like fortress could actually break anymore. The one exception to this rule seemed to be, unluckily for the warrior, the lock of the door.   
  
The warrior stepped back as streams of light flooded through the cracks in the door, and Gohan felt himself uneased that he couldn`t detect ki anywhere outside of the room. Bardock seemed to pick up on this. "Don`t bother trying to sense energy, this place has been cursed so many times in so many ways that it only works if they`re not seperated from you somehow," he explained, bending knee and waiting for the Aisu to turn around. The warrior was either so afraid or so dazed that he had yet to notice the two Saiyans, one of whom had a faded, slightly crumpled halo on his head, the other of whom was alive in the clothing of a Dai Kaio.   
  
"Maybe we came at a bad time and one of them went berserk with a transformation..."   
  
"_**FINAL FLASH!!!**_"   
  
"Or not," Gohan corrected his grand father, gaining the sense to forcibly shove Bardock out of the way with one hand before diving in the opposite direction, right as the immense doors into the room tore open, the ice lock shattering into a million pieces at the center as a sphere of golden light, intense as a newborn star, sheered through the cold air and hit the Aisu dead on in the chest, dragging the unfortunate warrior off of his feet and sending him careening through the entrance to the same escape passage that Gohan and Bardock had come in through.   
  
"Vegeta?" Gohan called out, staring at the familiar silhouette of the dead Prince, who`s aura suddenly ignited in reply, shedding a bright golden torch light into the room, aided by flashes of electric blue lightning crackling about the outer edge of the aura itself. "Well, well, well... What are you two doing in Hell?" The bloodied Prince asked. "Vegeta?" Bardock muttered to himself, getting back to his feet and staring at the figure before him. Gohan was a bit slower, due to the added weight of the Zet Sword. "Who else is insane enough to take on an entire fortress of dead Aisu warriors and generals and walk away the winner?" Vegeta asked, stepping forward. "What are goodie two shoes pansies like you and Kakarot doing in Hell?" The Prince demanded, honestly wondering how long he`d been tearing through unprepared ranks of Aisujin warriors.   
  
"Oh, I`m not dead yet and that isn`t Dad, that`s Bardock, my grandfather," Gohan explained. Bardock flenched. "My youngest son and my grandchild both associate with royalty on a first name basis? _Without_ calling you by your title first?" He questioned, mouth hanging open. He`d always figured Raditz had done so out of foolishness, but Kakarot too? "Both of your grandchildren, actually," Vegeta corrected. "Ehhh..." The tanned Saiyan paled a bit. "Pretty much," Gohan shrugged.   
  
"What are you doing here?" Vegeta asked for the third time. "Especially if you`re not dead like I thought you were," he scowled. Gohan smirked. Vegeta could hide his feelings but he`d just slipped up badly. "I`m too dumb to quit and too stubborn to die?" The youth asked. "Too dumb, obviously, too stubborn won`t get you anywhere," Vegeta quipped. "I take it the collective shit has hit the fan then?" He asked. "Wouldn`t know, I`ve been on Shin`s world since he and Kibito scraped me off of the ground."   
  
"Didn`t that big pink shit die?"   
  
"Apparently he was wished back," Gohan said with a shrug. "And I wasn`t? The nerve of some people..." Vegeta glowered falsely. "Well... Judging by that smirk you`re wearing, I doubt you mind," Gohan pointed out. "Damn right I don`t, I`m having the time of my life!" Vegeta cackled, turning around and firing off a ki blast down the enormous hallway outside of the throne room, hitting something or someone and causing an enormous roar to echo through the relative darkness, which degenerated into a wimpish scream as the blast _really_ detonated. "So one of the Bejitas actually went Super Saiyan and beyond while alive," Bardock interrupted in disbelief, resisting the urge to run up and poke Vegeta with a stick.   
  
"I was the strongest living Saiyan before I died," Vegeta bragged. "Of a population of a five if you count when my Dad came back from the dead for a day," Gohan commented sourly. Bardock was still in disbelief. He knew Kakarot had spoke of Vegeta frequently during the few times he spoke to his youngest son, he knew Kakarot had fought Vegeta for a time and he knew Kakarot had gone on to create some of his own variations on Super Saiyan and become one of the few to naturally achieve a second level beyond that without making a variation, but this?   
  
Bardock didn`t know whether to re-die of pride or attack his son for disobedience to the Saiyan Royal Family the next time they talked. "Well... You`ve yet to answer my question," Vegeta stated, hands on his hips. "Kibito sent me here to take out a guy named Damion so I could master this sword," Gohan paused, indicating the weapon at his hip and continuing a second later. "And use it to defeat Buu."   
  
"... My suicide attack didn`t work?" Vegeta asked. "Afraid not. Apparently you at least inspired Cell Junior enough to try one of his own though, I could detect it on Shin`s planet," Gohan answered. "Oh well," Vegeta shrugged in disdain. "At least I`ll have first dibs on Babidee when he gets here. In the mean time," Vegeta pointed down the hallway. "Fiftieth door on the right, then all the way down the hall, watch out for Aisu and look for a doorway that looks like the seals on Babidee`s ship with a lion`s face at the center and the signs of the human zodiac rimming it," he explained. "You going to follow?" Gohan asked. "I`m busy kicking ass and taking name, any idea where that little bitch Frieza is?" Vegeta asked with a grin.   
  
"Not really," Gohan shrugged. "He`s been outcast somewhere in the Obelisk Forest," Bardock answered. "I`ll show you there if you desire, Prince Vegeta," he stated. Vegeta quirked up an eyebrow. "It`s almost like Kakarot bending knee to serve me... If I wasn`t already dead I`d probably die of shock and laughter," Vegeta replied. "Even death can`t change you, huh?"   
  
"Once an asshole bastard, always an asshole bastard."   
  
"Good luck Vegeta," Gohan stated, igniting a grayish aura and taking off past the Prince in a hurry. "Aren`t you chilled, Prince?" Bardock asked, still kneeling before Vegeta. "Chilled?! I`ve been bathing in Aisujin blood since I got here! How can I be cold?!" Vegeta laughed, taking off in the same path as Gohan but going in the opposite direction. Another insanely large explosion sounded through in the distance, and Bardock stared in awe.   
  
_ "Saiyan blood lust knows no bounds... Even the Bejitas feel it,"_ he mused, scooping himself up and taking off after Vegeta.   
  
"**_WHOL L`QU`ESS VEGETA!!!_**" Bardock screamed, flaring straight into Super Saiyan and bounding off of a wall down the hallway that Vegeta had taken.   
  
_ Leave me alone  
I'm not asking a lot  
I don't want to be controlled  
That's all I want, all I want   
  
_ As for Gohan? Caution was the word of the moment as the youth snuck his way down the shrouded corridor that Vegeta had pointed him to. His caution was almost secondary to his amazement though, in the few short hours that Vegeta had been in Hell, he`d virtually painted the insides of the fortress with Aisu blood. Unconcious warriors who`d likely be dead bodies if it wasn`t Hell were sprawled out randomly through the hall. All were in the forms they`d fallen in, some in their true forms, a few in a more muscular, more alien form, more than one in monstrous forms that Gohan found himself slightly disgusted.   
  
A gust of cold filled the air and Gohan found himself turning around in paranoia. _"Felt like someone just whispered something,"_ he thought demusedly. Son Gohan had felt fear before, but fear from a foe you could see and at least fight openly was one thing, fear from something that seemed everywhere and no where at once was another. Another gust of cold air and Gohan heard a groan as one of the Aisu warriors, who was in what looked like his sixth or seventh form, just about the size of Frieza`s original second power concealing transformation, save that he was a pale green, drenched in the same purple blood that had frozen itself all over the fortress` insides by now.   
  
Gohan grimaced briefly. Vegeta`s reign of terror through Hell had certainly left behind it`s fair share of wracked victims. The Aisu was slow to his feet while the demi-saiyan before him contemplated his next action, finding that slight fear returning with each second. Maybe if it wasn`t so dark...   
  
_ "Well, I doubt he`d mind too much if I delayed his pain... Ah well,"_ Gohan thought, powering up a small ki blast and throwing the glowing projectile right into the unlucky warrior`s face. There was a horrendously loud screech and the entire passage was briefly illuminated a slightly golden shade, offsetting the purple slicks frozen onto the walls and floor, and the ceiling, for a short while. _"It was nothing,"_ he assured himself, spotting nothing in the deadened shadows before continuing on. The hallway was now, at least, dimly lit, but that did little to ease the tension.   
  
There was a massive explosion off in the distance, and Gohan snapped around hand held out in the direction of the sound, already having powered up a small scale ki blast before his arm had finished extending. Gohan waited. Nothing happened. Another explosion flared somewhere down the hall, Gohan could see three or four Aisu flying into view for all of a splot second before crashing through something with a fair amount of violence in the impact.   
  
_ "Just Vegeta and Bardock..."_ Gohan thought, sighing briefly and lowering his hand back down before turning around.   
  
"Or not."   
  
"_**QUALIN!!!**_"   
  
Gohan dove out of the way as a fist easily the size of an ordinary woman`s upper body slid through the air, pounding into the floor with enough force to crater ordinary ground like nothing. If not for the enchantments and every single spell that had been casted on or in the place through the eons, it likely would have brought the entire fortress down.   
  
But it didn`t. Igniting a silver aura around himself and bouncing off of a wall, Gohan delivered a sharp kick into the face of his assailant, causing the transformed Aisu to growl at him lowly. With the light now, Gohan could clearly see the warrior`s features. Sharp fangs that seemed like knives, a white and pink body similar to Frieza`s third form and stained with dozens of glossy streaks of frosted purple. "Saiyan," the creature growled. It was probably the only word that Gohan and the Aisu both spoke given the innate language barrier between Aisu and English. "... I guess you met Vegeta, huh?" Gohan asked.   
  
"**_QUALI_**-" The Aisu was cut off as Gohan attacked, lunging forward and slamming both knees up into the alien`s jaw, causing it to snap shut before the demi-saiyan flipped up and over him, standing on either of the two spines that extended out of the Aisu`s shoulder blades. Gohan`s speed and balance had both taken hits though, the weight of the Zet Sword made it hell to get around as fast as he could otherwise. Snapping his legs up and flipping down between the Aisu`s spines, twisting out of the way of it`s tail, Gohan knew what he had to do...   
  
With a massive flash of light, the darkness of the hallway faded into oblivion, another massive flash and it became as bright, if not brighter, than it was outside. The Aisu turned quickly but not quick enough, as a newly Super Saiyan Gohan at the second level rose up from the floor and delivered a crushing knee into the side of his face. The warrior groaned and toppled forward, tail lashing out. Gohan swiftly tilted out of the way, lightning crackling about his body as he jumped back, throwing his hands back and gathering power.   
  
"Kakusandan!" Gohan shouted, thrusting his hands forward and firing the beam off in a straight path. The Aisu jumped up and smacked into the ceiling, just as Gohan manipulated the blast into splitting apart. Explosions filled the hallway, drowned out after a moment by an Aisu scream, which rattled even the chilled air for all of a split second before fading out entirely.   
  
Gohan waited, watching the colossal form of the alien fighter collapsing out of the smoke of the explosion, which itself seemed to turn into a putrid fog in the heavy, cold air. Powering back down, Gohan hopped through the smoke and continued onward, pausing only briefly as another gust of cold filled his senses. _"Something tells me I should go back... No. I`ve got work to do,"_ Gohan argued with himself, even while moving off from the downed warrior and stepping over the fallen form of one of the Aisu`s comrades.   
  
_ How many times is it gonna take  
Till someone around you hears what you say   
  
_ "... Gohan..."   
  
_ "Where the heck did that come from?!"_ Gohan snapped around again, twisting and then sparing a glance up at the ceiling. He found nothing. The only company in the tunnel were unconcious Aisu warriors who were already three or four times as dead as they should have been. The hair on the back of the youth`s neck quietly stood on end, even worse than what you would expect for a Saiyan.   
"... _Gohan_..."   
  
_ "There it is again..."_ Gohan thought, suddenly feeling the voice as much as he`d heard it. Another gust of cold and Gohan`s face drew into a tight, determined frown as he tightened the sash around his waist, along with the belt that held the Zet Sword`s scabbard, and then began to walk forward heedlessly. He was greeted by another gust of cold air, this time so cold that it chilled him to the bone.   
  
"... _**GOHAN**_..."   
  
"**_SHUT UP!!!_**" Gohan screamed, only to feel what seemed like a small scale tornado rushing through the hallway, straight for him, moving at an impossible angle and streaking right by him. The eldest of Goku`s sons only barely had the sense to dive out of the way, feeling the icey flare of wind streak by and hit one of the recovering Aisu warriors. The alien screamed in fright and howled out in pain as the winds slammed him like a long arm straight into the walls, one by one, dragging him across the surface of the iced floor and straight down the hall, leaving behind a disgusting slick of gore and a trail of smoke from the explosions caused by the desperate Aisu`s attempts at freedom.   
  
_ "... Guess they don`t have everything here under control,"_ Gohan thought, jumping after the downed Aisu and followed the trail of purple blood along the floor, even as it frosted over more and more by the second. It wasn`t that Gohan wasn`t disturbed by any of the day`s events, I mean... Really. Who could walk through a darkly lit, sometimes almost pitch black fortress after a six mile deep drop into a trench after seeing an endless battle after getting an ancient sword after almost getting sent straight to the afterlife with a one way ticket by a morbidly obese pink demon after... Well, you get the point.   
  
It was more or less that Gohan was detached from it all. It wasn`t a Saiyan side of his nature that caused this either, Gohan`s human mind could scarcely even believe half of what he was seeing. That one person - alien or not - could contain _that much_ blood to spill in a war that was never going to end and had little in the way of a starting place, _that_ was enough to cause to have such a response. He`d seen death, obviously. He`d seen lots of it. But Son Gohan hadn`t seen undeath in Hell.   
  
It was an experience that was probably going to be giving him nightmares for decades if he lived through it.   
  
Rounding a corner, Gohan watched in quasi-morbid facination as the Aisu warrior`s body plowed into a seal that matched Vegeta`s description. Another disgustingly large explosion sounded off in the distance, rattling the entire fortress to it`s very foundations - if such a thing was actually possible anymore. "Vegeta must be having the time of his life..." Gohan mused. Only a war monger like Vegeta would actually enjoy going straight to Hell...   
  
Gohan winced as the Aisu let out a screech and tore apart, the morbid, emptied remains of the alien`s once muscular, trimmed body falling to the floor with a series of disgusting thuds. Gohan wanted to wretch all over the floor, but he didn`t. Rather, he stepped into plain sight of the seal, observing the now-purple stained piece of work with little amusement. It matched up to Vegeta`s description alright, the only flaw was the purple blood that had just been spilled all over it.   
  
The downed Aisu warrior let out a wheeze and stopped breathing, suddenly vanishing in a burst of white flames, which rose up through the ceiling. "I guess you can die in Hell after all," Gohan thought aloud, turning his attentions back to the task at hand.   
  
"... Open it..." That cryptic, quasi-feminine voice from earlier ordered.   
  
_ "... Must be the magics that Kibito was talking about,"_ Gohan with slight annoyance. Raising his hands above his head and gathering power from within, Gohan couldn`t help but smirk to himself. _"Well, she **did** tell me to open it after all..."_   
  
"**_MASENKO-HA!!!_**"   
  
The seal never stood a chance.   
  
_ You've tried being cool  
You feel like a lie   
  
_ Gohan almost yelped at the shock of frigid air that slipped past the barrier of the seal he had freshly broken, coming close to yanking him off of his feet and thrown him into a wall from the sheer force it held. His very soul felt chilled to it`s core, and not for the first time in this little quest, Gohan gave genuine thought to turning back. Then came another uniquely human trait.   
  
In the line of fire, humans have been observed making sacrifices if it means that which they care for, or large amounts of others, will survive it. Among sentient races of the universe, this trait was almost unique to humanity, shared by the Nameks and a few others, but not races like the Saiyans(at least not in normal conditions anyway, there were exceptions). It was the kind of trait that could propel a human, or a Namek or any other creature that held it, to do incredible things.   
  
One such thing was walking right into the coldest part of Hell that a mortal mind could comprehend even with certain death and eternal damnation riding on one`s back. Gohan cracked his neck balefully and powered up an aura of golden flame, though he didn`t turn into a Super Saiyan to do it. Controlling aura colors was easy, it was setting the right temperature that was the hard part. Normally temperature varied depending on mood, but it was often the same as the air around it.   
  
Gohan strained and the aura began to heat up. A bit more strain and he felt himself actually warming to more than the insanely frigid air that was still blowing at him vengefully. A bit more and felt he`d done what he could, walking forward and facing another sickening blast of cold wind with little in the way of true resistance. Another step and he found that there were stone stairs leading down on a slow arc to the ground, running along what felt like a mountain _inside_ a mountain.   
  
And then, in the extreme distance, Gohan could vaguely spot a light. It wasn`t a normal light, mind you, it didn`t carry the kind of light a lamp brought. It was a light that spoke of unending rage and unholy intentions, hatred and a heart as black and cold as frozen oil.   
  
Gohan couldn`t help but be intimidated. It was almost like facing off on the battlefield with Nappa all over again. Just like then though, but a whole lot sooner and with a whole lot less being needed to drive him, Gohan steeled himself and took the leap, literally in this sense. Sliding rapidly down the side of the slope from the staircase towards the snowed-over ground below, Gohan felt the weight of the Zet Sword giving him further momentum, and taking a risk, he placed a hand to the grip of the weapon and closed his eyes.   
  
Impact into the snow was even colder than he thought it`d be. Gohan`s aura died out almost instantly, and the chill he`d fought to supress for so hard came back to him a thousand times over. Luck was all that kept the cold shock from killing him on the spot.   
  
_ "I`ve done stupid things but I think I just broke any records there were on suicidal idiocy,"_ Gohan thought, pulling his arms around himself and getting back up to trudge along in the snow. After only three of these steps though, Gohan toppled sideways and back against the slope he`d just been sliding down a few moments before.   
  
"Cold..." He muttered, drawing his arms around himself even tighter and wincing his eyes shut. He probably would have cried if he hadn`t willed himself against it, he didn`t need his eyes freezing shut at a time like this. Survival instinct took effect though, Gohan gathered himself and jumped, igniting his aura again and driving it straight on until he glew like a golden torch in a pitch black room, hovering there in a tensed silence. Even breathing was hard after what had just taken place.   
  
And that was when he heard it.   
  
"... _Erio hesk o or-gumlaith_..." A new voice kept muttering. It was like the wind itself seemed alive, whispering and scheming against him, and it all lead back to one solitary source off in the distance.   
  
"Like playing games, huh?" Gohan asked annoyedly, recieving what seemed like a chuckle from the wind in response. "Here`s a game for you," Gohan growled in a Vegeta-like manner, his aura suddenly flaring up and becoming brighter, hair extending out just a bit and fading golden, a transition his eyes seemed to mirror for a moment before they`d settled on a fiery jade tone. The cold was the last thing on Gohan`s mind now.   
  
"Dodge the Kame Hame Ha!" Gohan yelled, throwing his hands to his side and gathering ki there, suddenly illuminated the deathly night-like area around him and revealing the shape of a ghastly wraith in front of him. Vaguely human, it looked like a skeleton wrapped in a black cloak, surrounding by smoke with red dots in place of eyes within it`s eye sockets. The creature howled and drew back, fleeing back towards the light in the distance.   
  
"... Alright, **_KAME HAME HA!!!_**" Gohan screamed angrily, throwing his hands forward and obliterating the spirit that had apparently been tailing him for at least the time it`d been since he had first arrived in this part of the mountain within a blindingly bright blast of lightning blue, which continued on, shockwaving through the air and hitting Gohan`s originally intended target: The light in the distance.   
  
There was a shuddering sound, a crashing noise and then the entire area was illuminated by what seemed like daylight for the first time in possibly forever, brought on by a nuclear-seeming explosion which tore straight through to the black ceiling of the cave and sent every wind in this sub-underworld careening out of control, glassing snow and blowing out at least a few inches of the ceiling and ground each in the process.   
  
_ You've played by their rules  
Now it's their turn to try   
  
_ That was when he saw it. Or more precisely, _him_. A small silhouette compared to the miles-high explosion of Gohan`s Kame Hame Ha, but a speck of black against the intensely blue-white background of the blast. Gohan drifted closer, weathering the after effects of his own attack for several seconds before darting downward, landing right on the blackened ice of the ground shortly after the last remnanats of the explosion died down.   
  
What had been a mansion from the looks of things, complete with at least a few dead servants and more than one feminine looking snow creature, was now levelled. Completely smashed, only one figure was still standing, enveloped in a black looking field of energy, which soon dissipated to reveal a man of Gohan`s own height, but a smaller frame, wrapped in the black royal armor of a knight at court, an equally black cloak billowing in the forcibly warmed evening air.   
  
What seemed like moonlight flooded the area now, and Gohan finally got a good look at who stood before him, his jaw almost hung open by way of response. It looked like he was staring at Chiba Mamoru, though this was entirely different at the same moment that it was entirely the same. The face was still benevolent(though falsely so in this case), the hair was still the same shortly kept black mess as what Gohan remembered, but the eyes were different.   
  
So different that Gohan wanted to run. Black clouds hovered within them, that was the only way to truly describe it visually, but the effect they wrought was far more impressive. Gohan grimaced at the angered smile of the man - or was it a demon with a man`s form?   
  
"Damion, I`m guessing?"   
  
"The one and only."   
  
"I`m here to kill you."   
  
"Heh."   
  
"Something funny?"   
  
"Only the prospect of a monkey killing someone who`s already dead," Damion answered. "It`s not like I can`t take you head on," Gohan smirked. "Then come and try," Damion challenged. "I have a lot to repay you for anyway, destroying my pets like that..."   
  
"Only a psychopath would consider snow men and smoke-built skeletons his pets," Gohan mused, bending forward slightly and raising his hands into a fighting stance. "And only a fool would charge into Hell while he`s still alive, while only an even bigger psychopath would drive himself through an Aisu fortress to come and face me," Damion retorted smugly as a gust of cool air blew between the two.   
  
"All talk, _no game_," Gohan accused while charging forward and letting loose with a kick. Damion shouted something in a tongue which Gohan couldn`t even understand enough to fully register, and the youth`s foot came into contact with a blackened barrier, which promptly expanded out and threw him back into the air after only a moment`s notice.   
  
Dashing downward, Gohan halted in mid-flight as a wave of blackness shot through the ground, glassing over the snow for a mile around. Damion lowered his hand to his side, beneath his cloak, and Gohan felt a growing anxiety as a click entered the area. The black haired prince slowly retracted his hand back out of the cloak, though now he bore something else.   
It was a large sword, obviously heavy enough that most men would have trouble even swinging it properly, yet Damion took a moment to spin it several times in one hand without an ounce of effort, halting after several such spins and holding his sword down to his side. Cold fog, heavy and thin, seemed to whisp off of the black hewed blade of the sword, holding in the air for a few inches at a time before fading away. "I believe you came to seek me in a duel, no?" Damion asked.   
  
Gohan grimaced and touched down, flaring up into the first level as he did so. "Good. Come and die, it`s been a while since I`ve had some fun..."   
  
_ So back off your rules  
Back off your jive  
Cause I'm sick of not living  
To stay alive   
_  
"Goku..."   
  
"What?"   
  
"I somehow don`t think - even if he was alive - that Vegeta would _ever_ agree to do this."   
  
"Why`s that?" Goku asked curiously. He couldn`t figure out what seemed so utterly abhorent about a simple little choreographed dance. "... Maybe some day you`ll understand," Piccolo commented sourly, assuming the starting pose a second time. "I doubt it. Doesn`t really seem that silly to me," Goku replied, assuming the same pose as Piccolo, both arms held straight out to the right in a mirror of what Piccolo was doing out to the left. "Fu-"   
  
Both of the two shuffled along towards each other, making the exact number of steps in the process. Both stopped, in unison they threw their arms towards each other, straightening their hands out, turning their lower bodies towards one another and bending their outer legs."-Sion..." Both straightened up after a moment and then bent over sideways, touching index fingers at the tips.   
  
"**_HA!!!_**" Both shouted, though Piccolo`s face quickly assumed the look of someone who`d just used the bathroom on a land mine. Goten and Trunks both stared blankly. "That`s... Supposed to help us beat Buu..." Trunks said in disbelief. "I guess if that`s what it takes... Even that Cell guy couldn`t do it so... Uhm..."   
  
"Yanno..."   
  
"... Thats..."   
  
"... 'Nifty?'"   
  
"... No..."   
  
"... Spiffy?"   
  
"... No..."   
  
"... Excessively lame?"   
  
"... Yeah..."   
  
"Pretty much..."   
  
"What in the blue _HELL_ is going on here?" Zangya asked, stepping in after a face faulting Krillin and staring at Piccolo and Goku, who both righted themselves. Piccolo hung his head in shame into his hand, Goku just nodded to the two boys. "You try it," Goku ordered, utterly unnoticing of the two new arrivals.   
  
"Hell must have just frozen over," Krillin muttered, half right in his guess. "I didn`t think I`d live to see the day when Piccolo tried to dance..."   
  
"I have no comment," Piccolo growled in replied, walking off into a corner to sulk alone. "... Well, gotta admit, he _did_ manage to move around with more style than Goku," Zangya shrugged. "... Goku`s a nitwit, I doubt he`d know about public nudity being a taboo if ChiChi hadn`t had three or four conniptions about it," Krillin explained. "Point taken," Zangya replied. "Concession accepted. Moving along..."   
  
"We... Have to... Do that dance?" Trunks asked, while Goten, who still seemed a little down about the day`s events, glanced over and waved to Zangya and Krillin. "Hey," he greeted with a slight frown, becoming the first to successfully notice exactly why Zangya had been gone.   
  
"Why`d ya put those back on?" Goten asked, pointing at Zangya`s ear rings and the necklace she wore. "No reason in particular..." Zangya defended with a shrug. Krillin blinked and glanced Zangya over. "... A better question is: Why are you wearing a Saiyan battle suit?"   
  
"... Erm... More stylish to die in blue spandex?"   
  
"... That can`t be it," Krillin replied. "She does have a point Krillin, _you_ died in spandex once," Goku pointed out, joining the conversation. The former monk twitched. "**_THAT ISN`T FUNNY GOKU!!!_**" He screamed, causing everyone but Piccolo and Goku to topple over in surprise. "Didn`t mean it to be," Goku said with a raised eyebrow. "... Oh, that`s right... Sorry," Krillin shrugged.   
  
"This just keeps getting more and more insane," Piccolo said to himself, contemplating blowing the planet up and sparing everyone the trouble.   
  
**_ "Earthlings, I have an important announcement for you now!" _**  
  
"Oh... Great," Zangya quipped dryly. _**"It looks like one of the three brats lives at the Capsule Corporation headquarters in the West Capital. I hope you`re there, because if you`re not..." **_  
  
Trunks growled at Babidee`s imitation of the sound of a throat being cut, closing his eyes tightly and watching the scene. "Shit," he muttered. "Gramma and Grampa are still at home..."   
  
"Goku! Did you hear that?!" Bulma yelled, virtually diving into the room. "Mom and Dad are gonna die!" She exclaimed. It was probably the first time that Goku had seen Bulma become irate for anyone`s safety but her own. "Calm down Bulma, we can just wish them back with the Dragonballs," Goku said with a shrug. "The city`ll be gone too!" Bulma yelled. "That can be the second wish... Or something," Goku shrugged again.   
  
"No. The Dragonballs were already used once today, we can`t use them again for another four months."   
  
"Could just ask for 'Everything to be turned back to normal,'" Goku suggested. "I see... Wai-" "Aren`t you forgetting something? Both of the Dragon Radars are at Mom and Dad`s place, both have unique parts and can`t be rebuilt easily if they`re destroyed," Bulma interrupted with a sneer. "If that happens, we can`t even find the Dragonballs to call Shenron back out either way."   
  
"... Ah crap," Goku grumbled. "Trunks, do you know what the Dragon Radars look like?" Goku asked hurriedly. "No..."   
  
"Goten?"   
  
"Yeah," Goten nodded. "But Trunks knows where they are," he pointed out quickly. "Then both of you get going, I`ll try to stall them for a while," Goku ordered. "Will you be okay?" Goten asked. "Can you even stop them? Won`t you just be killed?"   
  
"Stalling and stopping are two different things. I`ll be fine, now get going!" Goku ordered again, placing two fingers to his forehead and vanishing on the spot while Goten and Trunks took off down the hallway and ran past Dende and the rest of the Earth`s heroes and their families on the way out, both flaring up into Super Saiyan at the exact same moment and diving straight off the ledge of the Look Out without an ounce of hesitation.   
  
Videl blinked while Piccolo, Bulma, Krillin and Zangya walked out into view. "Care to explain what just happened?" She asked for the group in general. "Well..."   
  
_ Leave me alone  
I'm not asking a lot  
I don't want to be controlled  
That's all I want, all I want   
  
_ "Buu, turn around this instant! We went too far!" Babidee ordered. "Are you _trying_ to anger me?!" Babidee asked. It was bad enough that Buu had taken his sweet time in regenerating from that blue idiot`s attack, it was even worse that the obese demon had almost stopped listening to Babidee`s orders all together. Babidee didn`t like that, you see, he didn`t like it at all. "Are you even listening to me?!"   
  
"**_EEEEEE!!!_**" Babidee screamed, flailing and clutching at Buu`s cape as the huge demon screeched to a stop in mid-air, right as a familiar figure materialized in front of the pair. "Hi!" Goku said with a grin. "You!" Babidee shouted accusedly after floating back and behind Buu. "I thought Vegeta killed you..."   
  
" You can`t kill a dead man very easily."   
  
"No matter. I should thank you. Because of you, Majin Buu lives again. I wonder how much blood is now on your hands because of that, hmmm?" Babidee mocked. "Vegeta and I understimated Buu`s strength. We didn`t think it was possible for him to get this strong," Goku replied. "Excuses, excuses... Why did you come here, anyway?" Babidee asked.   
  
"I know! You came to tell us where those three rats are!" The sorcerer exclaimed. "Don`t be stupid," Goku replied sharply. "One of them is my kid."   
  
"Just like that first one, eh?"   
  
"... I came to warn you," Goku stated, ignoring Babidee`s jab at what had happened to Gohan. "**_WARN US?!_** Oh, this is _rich_, I should let the whole world see this!" Babidee cackled in delight, doing just that. "You`ll find those three, I promise," Goku said resolutely. "Just wait `til then and don`t destroy anything else."   
  
"Why should we wait? Are you planning something?" Babidee asked suspiciously. "Yes. They`re training to defeat Buu," Goku answered with a smirk. "**_DEFEAT US?! HAH!_**" Babidee broke down laughing. "Not in a thousand years will they defeat us!"   
  
"I didn`t say anything about you," Goku stated dryly. "Anyone could kill a weakling like you if they have enough willpower to resist your magics. Buu is the real threat, without him, you`re nothing."   
  
"**_SHUT UP!_**" Babidee ordered. "What`s wrong? Can`t handle the truth?" Goku asked. "**_I SAID SHUT UP!!! BUU, BLOW UP THE CITY!_**" Babidee screamed. "I thought you`d do that. I guess I`ll have to hold you off now, huh?" Goku asked. "Oh, this really _is_ rich... Buu, show him you`re terrifying power, display to this idiot and the world why you **_DON`T INSULT THE GREAT SORCERER BABIDEE!_**"   
  
Buu hovered there and whistled. "Buu? Hurry up and kill him!" Babidee ordered again. "Fine then," Buu shrugged, wobbling it`s arms around and kicking it`s legs out. "... Why do you take orders from him, anyway?" Goku asked, somewhat amused by what was happening. "**_SHUT UP ALREADY! BUU HAS NO SAY IN THIS, HE BELONGS TO MY FAMILY AND HE HAS TO DO AS I SAY SO OR I`LL SEAL HIM UP AGAIN!!!_**"   
  
Buu paused, glancing over at Babidee. "What?!" The sorcererer asked. "Do you _want_ to be sealed up again?!" Babidee threatened.   
  
"If you seal me up, he`ll kill you," Buu answered with a smile.   
  
_ "Shit... When did he learn that?!"   
  
_ "I`ll kill him. He looks nice so I hate him," Buu said with a shrug. Babidee inwardly sighed with relief. _"Guess I`ll have to do it,"_ Goku thought. "How should I kill you now?" Buu asked, drifting towards Goku, who hunched forward and drifted back in reply.   
  
"How about you don`t and say you did?" He asked curiously, actually hoping that Buu would do just that. "Nah... Where`s the fun in that?"   
  
"I tried..." Goku muttered, yelling out and powering himself straight up into the second level of Super Saiyan, his hair rising up against the wind and faidng golden, each strand becoming a little more visible, his eyes darkening from teal to jade. The air shockwaved off of him as his aura flared to life, golden and bright, distinct against the background of the sky, and surrounded by clashes of lightning.   
  
  
"Whoa!" Trunks and Goten paused, hovering mid-way over West Capital city and glancing out to the distant glow at sea. "He`s as strong as your dad was!" Goten exclaimed.   
  
**_ "People of Earth, behold what happens to our opponents!"   
  
  
_** Goku tightened up a bit more, gathering power and waiting. Buu was utterly unimpressed. "That won`t do you any good! Vegeta and your first brat both tried that! So did that blue asshole from earlier!" Babidee shouted with glee. Goku smirked.   
  
"Alright. Do you want to see something that surpasses the Super Saiyan beyond Super Saiyan?" Goku asked. "Eh?" Babidee and Buu both quirked eyebrows at the question.   
  
_ I said it before  
I'll say it again  
If you could just listen  
Then it might make sense   
  
_ "Beyond... Super... What?" Babidee asked. "I don`t even know what the hell you`re saying, what do you mean?"   
  
_ "Trunks and Goten aren`t moving... Hurry up! I don`t want to do this!"_ "The Super Saiyan that surpasses the Super Saiyan beyond Super Saiyan," Goku answered, intentionally trying to be confusing. He hadn`t done it as often, but nobody stalled like Goku, especially not when it was a life or death matter for the Earth and the rest of the universe with it.   
  
  
"I don`t believe this..." Trunks mumbled. "He`s bluffing... He`s gotta be bluffing..." Goten replied, both of the boys hovering above the city still, watching things with their eyes shut.   
  
_** "HURRY UP AND GET MOVING!!!"**_ Goku screamed past Babidee at the boys, using the sorcerer`s own magics against him. If there was one thing the two boys didn`t know it was a key fact that all of Goku`s opponents - be it in spars, training or battles to the death - had learned the hard way: Son Goku **_never_** bluffed. "Okay!" Trunks shouted, grabbing Goten by the arm and dragging him onward before Goten broke free and flew after the other on his own.   
  
  
"What?! Who are you talking too?!" Babidee demanded. "I was just using you to tell my wife to hurry up. I want something good to eat after I finish mopping the floor with the both of you," Goku lied. Babidee growled in response. "Looks like you`re quite the braggart, eh?" Babidee asked after a moment. "Sure I am," Goku replied with a smirk. _"I guess I don`t have a choice in the matter,"_ Goku thought, suddenly powering back down. Babidee stared. "Eh?"   
  
"Why did you power back down to normal? Did you give up?" Buu asked with a snicker. "Not by a long shot. I`m going to explain Super Saiyan to you, level by level, until you understand," Goku explained. "That`s useless, I don`t want to know that," Babidee growled. "Who said I`m explaining it to you?" Goku asked with a rare hint of snideness in his voice. Buu snickered at the treatment, it was probably the first time anyone had actually tried to set things out to him without trying to destroy or threaten him first.   
  
"First, this is my normal condition," Goku explained, promptly firing things up by powering up into the first level of Super Saiyan. _"I guess I`ll try being detailed. Might buy more time..."_ "This is Super Saiyan, I guess you could call it the first level. There are at least fifteen kinds of it, all varying in strength and speed but I know how to do only four. This is the first stage, basic. This..." Goku paused, grunting as his body seemed to expand in the douji he wore, stretching the material that was once loose until it was pulled tightly around him. "Is the second stage, higher speed and strength but no real improvement on endurance. I can`t show you the third stage I know, it`d tear my clothes off and I`m not in the mood to break another public indecency law on accident," Goku explained. Buu nodded, not understanding how indecency laws worked into the equation but still intent on learning how his opponent`s power worked.   
  
"This is the fourth stage I know," Goku explained, just as his body shrank back down about halfway, the douji again becoming loose. He had to pause a moment and tighten his belt before continuing. "Most of the people I know call it Super Saiyan, Full Power," Goku explained. "Normally when you power up quickly with this one, it levels the surrounding area or at least causes _something_ big to happen, so I don`t use it very often." Buu nodded again.   
  
"This, is the Super Saiyan that suprasses Super Saiyan, I guess you could call it Super Saiyan Two" Goku stated, his hair again becoming more defined, raising straight up except for three locks that hung out like horns over his forehead, angled sharply to point back at him. Bolts of electricity flared around the Saiyan as he straightened himself up. "It`s far stronger than anything of the first level`s seperate stages, about as easy to maintain as the first level`s Full Power form. There aren`t as many variations on this since only six or seven Saiyans have managed to get to it or beyond. I only know the second variation that I`ll show you now," Goku explained, the aura suddenly tinging a bit darker, his hair becoming a bit longer and his eyes darkening ever so slightly.   
  
"This just offers better speed at the cost of energy, so I only use it when I can`t beat my opponent conventionally."   
  
"Go on..." "**_KILL HIM ALREADY BUU!_**"   
  
"Alright... You`ve seen the other levels, and this..." Goku began, gathering up power from within, just as the winds began to rush around. "Is..." Goku continued, leaning forward slightly and clenching his jaw shut, right as the skies began to faintly darken a bit more every second until they`d fully turned pitch black. Lightning crashed violently around the Super Saiyan, slamming into the sea, clashing against his aura, wryly warping around him and quickly beginning to cause Babidee a bit of fear.   
  
"**_EVEN STRONGER!!!_**"   
  
Goku`s eyes blanked out to a solid white, and reality seemed to warp around him, like a whirlpool effect. The very lighting of his body inverted itself, gold became dark purplish blue, tan became solid black, black became solid white, blue turned red and orange turned blue. Even the sound of Goku`s screaming became warped, the sea churned hundreds of feet below and Babidee quickly hid himself behind Buu, who seemed impressed as the transformation continued.   
  
Goku`s aura exploded violently into a perfect sphere, surrounded by the same raging inferno of golden flames as Vegeta`s kamikaze attack. "You`re not gonna blow me up, are you?" Buu asked annoyedly. Goku screamed out what seemed like a no, then threw his head back and vanished in a blinding flash of light so bright that even Buu shielded it`s eyes for at least a few seconds.   
  
Goku had changed.   
  
_ So back off your rules  
Back off your jive  
Cause I'm sick of not living  
To stay alive   
  
_ "Super Saiyan Three," he exclaimed calmly. The changes were more than just his ki and his hair though, Goku`s body had gotten a bit taller, far more defined if not a bit larger, his eyebrows were gone, replaced by a heavy, hairless forehead that resembled Piccolo`s, his eyes had gained visibly irised pupils for the first time in _living_ memory, showing to be black surrounded by forest green. Even his hair had changed, becoming three or four times as long as before, hanging down to the backs of his knees only to be picked up by the force of his aura, blowing behind him like a heavy cape of gold. Even the shadows recoiled, replaced by golden light at every point as reality stopped warping.   
  
"Stage two," Goku added. "I can`t manage doing the first _and_ second stages and the eyes and the ki are the only major difference, there`s a third stage I can do but that one would take too long and I can`t do it in my current condition. Sorry that took so long, I`m still getting used to it all," Goku explained once again. "It looks good," Buu commended. "But I`m still not scared!" He taunted.   
  
"I didn`t mean to scare you anyway," Goku said with a shrug. "Oh... Okay."   
  
"**_IT`S JUST A FRONT, HURRY UP AND KILL HIS SORRY ASS ALREADY!!!_**" Babidee interrupted in a rage. "Let`s do this quickly," Goku said, ignoring Babidee`s temper tantrum and powering up a bit further. "All the people of the Earth are watching! Put him to shame Buu!"   
  
"Okay, okay!" Buu replied annoyedly, charging away from Babidee and attacking Goku with a fist. He met only air though, the real Goku appeared behind him, followed by a golden exhaust trail that showed he`d circled around Buu three times already. Snapping an arm out in a blur, Goku grabbed Buu`s head tail and yanked it, tugging Buu straight into a series of punches from Goku`s other arm before the Saiyan warrior finally stopped, whirling Buu around roughly and then throwing him to the ground.   
  
Goku didn`t even bother waiting for Buu to climb back out, letting loose with a blistering assault of high powered ki blasts down into the water, angled at such a way that the ripple effects would go out to sea rather than hit West Capital. Each blast hit it`s mark but after all of ten seconds, Goku stopped, holding his hands at his sides and waiting.   
  
Buu flashed back out of the water in a blur, throwing his hands up at Goku and shouting out before letting out with an equally brutal hail of ki blasts, though it was done in a different style from what Goku had hit him with. _"So he can copy techniques by seeing them once,"_ Goku thought, even while deflecting the blasts out into space. Fighting was such a second nature to him that he could probably carry on an in-depth conversation regarding the lives of everyone over the past six years while dodging through a wall of ki blasts and trading punches with someone.   
  
And then Buu vanished, fading out from where he had been hovering and reappearing across from Goku high in the air, an arm already springing out and extending a few dozen feet to tag Goku right in the chin.   
  
_ Leave me alone  
I'm not asking a lot  
I don't want to be controlled  
That's all I want, all I want  
  
_ Goku drifted back, Buu recalled it`s arm and both fighters hovered in a circle across from each other, smirking as the battle hit a brief lull.   
  
Things were definately about to go all out...   
  
_

End Part Fifteen  
  


* * *

  


_ **Author`s Note:** Long enough for ya?! IS IT?! Jeez... This one took me a half an hour to HTML so I hope you enjoyed it :P Sorry for the delay, by the way.  
  
And actually, I`ve come to the conclusion that this story has no main hero... There are too damn many people getting spotlights for just long enough... Ah well, you`ll see what I mean.   
  
Sh33p out. 


	17. Forgotten Redux

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations  
** _Forgotten Redux _  
  
  
  


Every one of the Hells were violent places to some extent. The Hells of thievery meant offenders often mugged each other over nothing, the Hells of sexual perversion meant offenders often wound up with infinitely bad tastes in their mouths and even more infinite ease in using the bathroom, while the Hells of anger meant that everyone was constantly attacking everyone else over things as small as '**_YOU BLED IN MY GENERAL DIRECTION!!!_**' and '_**STOP SCREAMING SO LOUD WHEN PEOPLE BEAT ON YOU!!!**_' and the ever so festive '**_YOU`RE PLAYING DEAD IN MY SPOT YOU BASTARD!!!_**'   
  
No Hell was quite as violent, however, as the Hell of Evil Warriors. Of course there were Hells that were worse, the original Hell for one, the Hell of Perverse Needle and Foodstuff Usage was another, but no Hell was quite as violent as the Hell of Evil Warriors. Even the Hells of anger could only wince at the kind of brutality that went on in this particular Hell. This was primarily because of the unending war between the Saiyans and the Aisu, and the conflicts that came when rogue groups like the gang that Cell, Frieza, what remained of the Ginyu Force and a few others clashed together or with the Saiyan or Aisu armies. All of the others usually just hid and prayed that the ever brutal conflict didn`t spread to their end of this particular Hell.   
  
The Hell of Evil Warriors was also the only Hell that sported a diverse environment. It was painfully hot in some areas, mind numbingly cold in others, and lastly, the Hell of Evil Warriors was the only Hell that could be considered 'linked' to some of the more ancient Hells, and the only Hell that could claim it`s own secondary underworld.   
  
This underworld was accessable only through the Aisu fortress, and the inhabitants of the fortress had tried incredibly hard to keep this underworld hidden and locked away, both as an internal security measure, and as a last resort. While it wouldn`t have been an easy thing to do, the Aisu could have taken over the secondary underworld if the fortress had ever fallen, using it as a bunker.   
  
Today though, this underworld, this frozen Hell in Hell, was playing host to a battle between past and present. Two warriors, one a half-bred youth with the weight of existence on his shoulders, the other an evil warrior-mage with a heart as black as the glassed terrain they stood on. False moonlight showered their battlefield, reflections blurrily hanging beneath their feet in the glossy looking ground they were ready to do battle on. "Lost your nerve?" The former prince, Damion asked. "If I lost my nerve, I wouldn`t be here," Gohan answered stonily.   
  
"Then attack," Damion ordered, beckoning Gohan to come and strike him with his free hand. "You _did_ come to kill me, didn`t you? Let`s see you make good on your word... Monkey," Damion taunted. "Monkey see, monkey do, after all."   
  
"I`m not a monkey," Gohan grumbled. "Then what are you?"   
  
"I`m half human and half Saiyan," Gohan exclaimed, though he lacked the kind of fiery pride someone like Vegeta would have when announcing their heritage. "How quaint. Tell me, how desperate was your human parent to have a child by a monkey?" Damion asked. Gohan twitched. "What did you just say?"   
  
"Which parent was a baboon, I wonder... Probably your father, so how desperate must your mother have been, hm?"   
  
"... I`m going to make you eat those words," Gohan threatened, balling his hands into fists. "Eat my words? Your monkey of a father must have passed on some massively deficient genes to make you think you can make me literally eat my words," Damion replied. "Say`s the one who got sent to Hell because he was jealous," Gohan retorted. "So? Better that I died in my own interests than in the interests of the idiots around me at the time," Damion stated. "And you called me pathetic?"   
  
"I never said you were pathetic... Until now, because that`s exactly what you are. Monkey."   
  
"Sticks and stones won`t break my bones, neither will petty words."   
  
"Is that so?" Damion asked with amusement. "Yes," Gohan answered certainly. "Well then... Anno nin en-daedelos hono garo," Damion replied.   
  
_ From the top to the bottom  
Bottom to top I stop  
At the core I've forgotten  
In the middle of my thoughts   
  
_ Gohan screamed as a flood of images filled into his mind. Fears, one and all, ranging from the simple to the extreme. It started simply, with the slight fear that had come from his father over needles, escalating rapidly into fear of failure, and then two of the more dramatic fears he`d faced in his life, coming at the same time. _"**VIDEL!!!**"_ He screamed in his thoughts as a version of himself, clad in Saiyan battle armor and wearing a warped smirk, stood laughing over a dying Videl. It was a fearful vision for more than a dozen key reasons, but the most profound were his fear of failure to protect those he cared for, and an older fear that he would become like those he`d fought in the past.   
  
"But my bones aren`t broken yet," he commented, trying in vain to force the vision out of his mind. "That can easily be solved," Damion replied calmly, leaning his weight onto his sword and speaking again in that strange language. "Ugwedriol naeg nui e-pal-" Damion`s words came to a dead stop as Gohan burst back up, catching the demon prince off gaurd and unprepared with a fist into the right cheek. Damion stumbled aside, bleeding now, while Gohan drew back and blew hot air onto his hand. Damion`s very flesh was as chilled as the battleground they fought on.   
  
"That... Hurt..." Damion uttered with a sneer. "Real battles normally do, or have you forgotten that while you`ve been down here with your snow men?" Gohan asked, wiping the frost off of his hand. "... You made me bleed... How can a god damned monkey make me bleed?! **_HOW?!_**" Damion screamed, and Gohan felt a wall of non-existant ice slam into him and throw him off of his feet, sending the youth sliding along on the frigid black glass of the ground for several seconds before the sheer weight of the Zet Sword gouging scabbard-first into it caused him to come to a stop. "I`ll make you pay!" Damion howled, his sword held accusingly at Gohan, who sprang back up after several seconds, looking chilled to the bone but otherwise unphased.   
  
"**_HELEG DRAMBOR!!!_**"   
Gohan went straight back down, numb and bleeding in the forehead from a fist made of ice, who seemed to fly right out of the air from around Damion, hitting him like proverbial ton of bricks and drawing blood for the second time in the battle. "Pathetic monkey..."   
  
"What in the heck hit me?"   
  
"Nothing compared to what I intend to do to you."   
  
Gohan was slow to prop himself up on his elbows, moving a hand up to his bleeding forehead and glaring over at Damion, who was obviously angry enough to drop his cool facade. "No monkey hurts me and gets away with it. _Ever_."   
  
"I`m not a monkey..." Gohan commented, slow to his feet due to the weight at his side. "Your father was a Saiyan, even if you`re half human that still makes you a total monkey," Damion replied sharply. "Just shut up..." Gohan replied, raising his free hand and firing off a low powered ki blast, which Damion sliced in half with an upward moving cut with his sword, which moved with a precision that almost made Gohan queasy. The two seperate parts of the blast whisped off into the distance, causing twin explosions somewhere out in the small underworld.   
  
"Heleg hathel," Damion spoke, the blade of his sword instantly becoming ablaze with a frigid looking blue fire. "Nice party trick," Gohan commented, finally deciding it was time to fight fire with fire. Reaching down, the youth took a grip on the roughly made hilt of the Zet Sword, calmly yanking it loose with a click of the scabbard before removing the heavy weapon and holding it before him. It was unbelievably heavy, but in his current condition as a Super Saiyan he was able to manage.   
  
"I`m going to enjoy this," Damion said. "I`m going to make sure you _don`t_," Gohan replied, hefting the Zet Sword up into a defensive posture.   
  
_ Taken far from my safety  
The picture is there  
The memory won't escape me  
But why should I care  
  
_ And that was when both fighters paused and exchanged surprise glances. "What in all the Hells is that?!" Damion shrieked, lowering his sword for a moment and glancing up into the black sky/ceiling of the pocket underworld. Gohan grimaced slightly. It was a power he hadn`t ever felt before yet knew like the back of his hand, massive and unending, familiar and changed at the same time. He could feel outside of the small underworld that the fighting in Hell had stopped, people were taking notice very quickly as the unknown power continued building.   
  
"Dad?" Gohan asked himself in disbelief. "'Dad?'" Damion asked. "He`s that monkey you were talking about," Gohan snidely pointed out, watching with barely contained amusement as Damion gulped. "I guess us monkeys aren`t as pathetic as you thought, huh?" Gohan asked, charging forward. Damion jumped back, flipping over Gohan`s swipe and touching down a few dozen feet away with a backflip, heavy cloak billowing in the wind. "Come on, cat got your tongue?" Gohan taunted, regaining his balance from the swiping attack and diving at Damion again, who speedily brought Frostreaver up and blocked the Zet Sword, causing a vicious clash as the icey flames of the sword extinguished in an instant on contact with the legendary weapon of the Kaioshins.   
  
"Not at all," Damion replied, suddenly raking his sword over Gohan`s and allowing the weight of the Zet Sword to drag Gohan into an imbalanced state. The youth clumsily stumbled forward, and Damion was quick to capitalize, twirling his sword into a stabbing posture and making sure he stood back to Gohan`s side, swiftly bringing his weapon towards the other`s in a wide, arcing thrust.   
  
Gohan`s own clumsiness saved him though, the youth tripped over his own feet on the smooth glass and toppled over, the Zet Sword holding upright on it`s own for several seconds while Damion`s blade passed through the air, leaving a foggish trail to be blown away by the high, thick winds of the frosty underworld. The demi-saiyan youth was fast though, springing back up once Damion`s attack finished and grabbing the Zet Sword before it could finish falling.   
  
Holding it in the position you`d expect for a stab, Gohan threw both hands onto the hilt of the weapon, pulling the hilt back to rest tip-first against the front of his shoulder and swinging the Zet Sword into an uppercut. Damion dodged out of the way by inches, twisting around and bringing Frostreaver for another pass, which Gohan narrowly avoided by allowing the Zet Sword`s momentum to throw him off balance and carry him back. Gohan dropped the weapon quickly, catching it in the proper holding stance and bringing it up into a block again Damion`s own blade, which crashed with a whistling screech onto the unyeilding metal of the Zet Sword.   
  
"Rank amatuer!" Damion insulted. "If I`m a rank amatuer, that doesn`t say much for you, now does it?!" Gohan asked back, tilting his sword at the proper angle that Damion`s slid off and slashed the ground, taking the opening and doing a most dishonorable thing in the process.   
  
"**_SHIT!!!_**"   
  
Damion fell over forward, releasing his grip on Gohan`s sword and toppling chin first into the other`s shoulder. The former prince staggered back, both hands cradling his groin protectively while Gohan jabbed the Zet Sword blade-first into the ground, using it to root himself into position before springing his feet off of the ground and laying a hard kick straight into Damion`s upper back, performing a half twist in mid-air for added force in the blow. The demonic prince, still aching from the prior kick, toppled over, face first into the black glass surface of the ground, sliding along for several dozen feet while Gohan flopped onto his rear on the ground.   
  
Using the Zet Sword was truly starting to wear on him, even in Super Saiyan, and honor generally wasn`t a good thing to try and follow when you were dealing with someone who had none and probably would have burst into laughter at the whole concept of it. "That is why you don`t insult my family," Gohan said with a smirk. Damion only whimpered in a fetal position as his response.   
  
_ There's a place so dark you can't see the end  
Skies cock back and shock that which can't defend   
  
_ All of twelve seconds ago, Buu had managed to literally telegraph a punch to Goku`s cheek from some forty feet away. All of eight seconds ago, Goku and Buu had exchanged smirks. Four seconds ago, they`d been drifting around, circling one another as their battle hit a distinct lull. In most battles, this would`ve been the part where death threats, trash talk, flaunting, mocking and randomly blowing up an innocent bystander or three hundred would have taken place. This wasn`t present though. The two said nothing.   
  
And then they promptly vanished. Babidee almost wet himself as an impact shockwave sounded off above and behind him, whipping around to see Buu blocking Goku`s right forearm. The two vanished again, and Buu appeared first this time, hanging high in the air and throwing down a bolt of energy towards the water, which suddenly seemed to split enough as Goku reappeared, zooming in fast enough that the sheer force of his aura`s exhaust trail altered the course of Buu`s blast, carrying it high up back into the air before Goku halted instantly and turned around, smacking the blast back at Buu, who elastically spread himself out like a net and bounced it back at Goku.   
  
The Saiyan warrior backflipped this time, kicking the blast straight up and out into space, righting himself and then darting straight downward, still pointing at Buu. The pink demon had other ideas though, throwing it`s head back and then hurling it forward, tail extending out like a whip. Goku halted on the water`s surface, the sheer force of his aura causing a slight depression beneath his feet. The demon`s head tail continued on downward and the Saiyan threw his arm to the side.   
  
"Kienzan!" Goku shouted, forming the attack almost instantly just a few inches from his hand. Most people would have expected Goku to slice Buu`s tail in half, but the Kienzan had at least one other usage: As a shield.   
  
Buu`s head tail slapped viciously against the flate plane of the Kienzan, burning briefly before retracting, taking all of a precious second to return to Buu`s head as it usually rested, a single second which Goku took advantage of, turning the Kienzan so that he held it like a frisbee and then throwing the attack at Buu, only to have it shatter into a dozen smaller Kienzans, the same technique that Krillin had tried using against Frieza.   
  
Against Buu, it was both more and less effective. Every single mini-Kienzan hit home in a large way, splicing straight through Buu and coming out of the back of it`s body, but the damage was negligable to say the least, seeing as Buu simply regenerated as if it was nothing. _"So much for cutting attacks,"_ Goku thought, executing a Zanzoken and appearing behind Babidee. The sorcerer shrieked again and threw up a barrier, doing exactly as Goku wanted.   
  
"**_STRIKE!_**" The Saiyan shouted, digging three fingers - thumb, index and middle - from his right hand into Babidee`s black magic barrier, with the sorcerer still in it no less, and then winding up. Buu quirked up an eyebrow and watched as Goku sent the barrier hurtling at him like a bowling ball, tilting it`s head out of the way at the last second while Babidee streaked by.   
  
"Why`d you do that?" Buu asked. "Well, did you find it funny?" Goku asked, still stalling for time. Buu blinked a few times before bursting into laughter. "I get it!" It shouted repeatedly. _"Just keep laughing..."_ Goku thought, even as a distant scream kept coming closer and closer. The third class-turned legend was nonchalant, raising his hand and causing a returning Babidee, who had just orbited the planet, to smash straight into the back of his fist, barrier shattering like nothing.   
  
Babidee screeched and gagged, spewing his lunch out over Goku`s hand and sending it all flying into the sea below before sagging off of the Saiyan`s fist and drifting back, the large 'M' on his chestpiece dented considerably.   
  
"**_STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE!!!_**" Buu cackled, stopping after several more seconds and hunching forward. "Ready to continue?" Goku asked. Buu snickered and blurred forward, an action mirrored by the other fighter.   
  
_ The rain then sends dripping acidic questions  
Forcefully, the power of suggestion  
  
_ "**_ERIO HELEG UUAN!!!_**" Damion squeaked, still holding his groin with one hand and waving the other at his foe. Gohan, who was taking the time his gambit had bought him to rest, was quick to his feet, watching as the black glass before him, rapidly becoming brittle as the minutes passed, suddenly warped and deformed, raising up in the form of a head, followed by shoulders. Seconds further passed before a black ice creature twice the size of Piccolo jumped straight up and out of the glassed ground of the battlefield, landing with an audible thud as it`s features began to become apparent, no longer solid black.   
  
Now, it was an especially darkened blue bordering on purple, fog rising out of it`s eye sockets, what looked like armor adorning it`s massive built. Unarmed as it was, Gohan didn`t exactly want to be on the recieving end of the thing.   
  
The demi-saiyan youth dove back, watching the ground shatter as glass and ice beneath the creature`s enormous fist, which took on the role of a foot for a single moment while the creature slung itself at Gohan again, who dove forward and slid along beneath it before handspringing up to his feet.   
  
The teen threw his hands forward at his stomach, powering up rapidly while sliding along towards the Zet Sword. "Masenko..." Gohan began, the orange glow suddenly covering his hands until it outshined the golden glare of his aura. Jumping off of the ice and balancing on the handgaurd of the Zet Sword, Gohan leaned backwards at an impossible and threw his hands in front and over himself, just as the attack finished building and the creature willed itself to a stop.   
  
"**_HA!!!_**"   
  
Damion`s ice warrior vanished in an orange flash which glassed the ground even further than before, annihilating it almost instantly. The youth fell off of the gaurd of the Zet Sword, springing back up only to find himself facing another assault as wave after wave of faintly visible fists slammed frigidly into his body and head from the front.   
  
"**_LIM HELEG DRAMBOR!!!_**"   
  
The black glass and ice was quick to turn red.   
  
_ Then with the eyes tightly shut looking through the rust and rot  
And dust, a small spot of light floods the floor  
  
_ "You aren`t gonna find the thing in time, you know..."   
  
"Shut up Jack," Goten growled. "Not in the mood to listen to you right now," he added, glaring over at the small figure who was currently sitting on Trunks` head, being growled at by Doctor Briefs` pet cat. "Find it yet?" Trunks asked. "Hold on..."   
  
"Come on Goten, I don`t think your dad can hold Buu off forever..."   
  
"Are you blind? He`ll probably end up tearing Buu apart!" Goten exclaimed, pausing his search through the endless pile of junk that was labelled 'Bulma`s Old Inventions.' Things here ran the gauntlet from Bulma`s first invention ever(a flyswatter that doubled as a portable radio) to the original model of the type of miniaturization device she`d given Master Roshi in her youth to the construction plans for a machine that could turn energy into crystal to a device that had been half-destroyed by Bulma`s father because it would have tapped into Hyperspace to power...   
  
A make-up kit mirror. Yes, Bulma really _was_ that desperate to make sure she looked good at all times.   
  
"Trunks, your mom has _way_ too much free time on her hands," Goten commented sourly, half-buried in the thirty foot wide, seven foot tall pile of junk. "Not my fault geniuses get bored easily," Trunks replied lazily, leaning back against his grandfather`s chair. Doctor Briefs wasn`t really paying attention to either boy at the moment though, he was busy putting together plans for a stereo that had the endurance of a dozen AK-47s.   
  
Trunks wasn`t kidding when he said geniuses get bored easily.   
  
_ And pours over the rusted world of pretend  
The eyes ease open and it's dark again   
  
_ Buu slammed through the surface of the water again, only to find himself dried once more when the ocean retreated under the force of Goku`s aura, which turned out to be a herald of a kick straight into Buu`s face. The demon`s entire head collapsed around Goku`s boot, and the Saiyan drew back after several seconds to burst away from Buu, passing it on his way down. The sea water rushed back in though, caving in around Buu rapidly and squishing the obese demon into a twig for several seconds.   
  
_ "Buu probably can`t see me now, or smell and hear me,"_ Goku thought to himself, darting further down beneath the sea until he hit the surface of the ocean floor, surrounding by pitch black. If not for his aura`s way of still pushing the water back like a bubble, the pressure would have probably killed him instantly. _"But I can still sense him... Right... There. Didn`t want to do this either, but I don`t have a choice in it."_   
  
"Ryu..." Goku began, gathering up as much spare power as he could and finding Buu`s ki. The demon was now hovering above the sea, looking around for him in vain. Good. The golden glow of Goku`s aura soon vanished against the even brighter glow of Goku`s right fist, which seemed to vanish into a solid gold shape akin to the face of the Eternal Dragon, Shenron. _"Here goes nothing..."   
  
_ "**_KEN!!!_**"   
  
In the air above the surface of the water, Buu grumbled annoyedly over the fact that he couldn`t see, hear or smell Goku, and since he didn`t know how to detect ki he could sense him another way either. Babidee was hovering off to the side, screaming at it to just blow up the entire area, but what`s the fun in that when you`re having a great fight?   
  
And then the surface of the ocean began to churn violently, slipping from clear blue to solar gold, then outright shattering as a dragon that was easily hundreds of feet long, a dozen or more feet wide, exploded from beneath the waves, sliding gracefully by Buu, who had to fling himself out of the way at the first second to avoid the attack, then arcing gracefully back around with a roar.   
  
This time, Buu couldn`t dodge, and found himself ensnared in the golden creature`s jaws, which clamped shut brutally before the rest of it`s body snaked up out of the sea, proving to easily be twice as long as what it first seemed, measuring in at close to a thousand feet, all of it wrapping tightly around Buu`s overweight form before vanishing into a sun-like sphere.   
  
The sphere quickly collapsed on itself a moment afterward, exploding brutally into a ball of crimson and golden fire that threw the irate, terrified Babidee straight back and onto a nearby island out at sea.   
  
_ In the memory you'll find me  
Eyes burning up  
The darkness holding me tightly  
Until the sun rises up  
  
_ "**_GET AWAY FROM ME!!!_**" Gohan finally screamed, now having turned into a bruised, bleeding mess after roughly thirteen seconds of pounding from Damion`s magics. The detached hail of fists shattered brilliantly as a golden light sheered through the darkness, blasting winds away, lighting up the eternal night of the pocket underworld and throwing a temporarily blinded Damion off of his feet all over again.   
  
_ "Can`t let him get me like that again,"_ Gohan thought as the painful realization of his injuries hit him. His forehead had been busted wide open, both eyes were black, he had a broken nose and a cracked cheekbone, every one of his teeth felt loose and this was only for his face. Most of his ribs were at least bruised, if not cracked or broken, one leg felt half numb, as did his right shoulder, though he could still move the arm with some effort. Internal bleeding was practically a gaurantee in his current state.   
  
Damion was slow to his feet as well, looking both sunburned and bruised up, but only bleeding from where Gohan had hit him earlier. With both warriors standing haggardly, only two things rested between them:   
  
The Zet Sword and Frostreaver, which rested side by side, though the Zet Sword had stood on it`s tip, stabbed into the ground.   
  
Both of the combatants tensed briefly, and launched from their points at the same time. Gohan was the faster to get to his weapon, literally stumbling onto the Zet Sword`s hilt and falling over, ripping the legendary weapon out of the ground as Damion tumbled through the air, grasping the hilt of Frostreaver and rolling up to his feet with impressive speed and agility, only to jump back off of the ground and come down on the laying teen with his sword.   
  
Blades clashed again, and Gohan fought to hold the weight of the Zet Sword up against the force behind Damion`s unholy sword, steels clashing, skills meeting head-on.   
  
Damion drew back first, swinging Frostreaver into a brief twirl so that he held it in stabbing posture, then slashing down at Gohan in a bid to slice the youth in half down the middle. Gohan barely rolled out of the way, flipping forward and onto his feet in an impossibly balanced position, bent over backwards before jerking the Zet Sword back up right and himself with it, sending a leg out and starting his attack by kicking the demon prince right in the face. Damion spun around from the impact, bringing Frostreaver into a block against the Zet Sword, timing his reply to Gohan`s strike perfectly.   
  
"Die monkey," Damion muttered, forcing the Zet Sword back at Gohan to the point that the other could feel Frostreaver`s frigid aura. "No," Gohan replied after several seconds, gathering himself up and shoving Damion`s sword back. The Zet Sword hard, it`s tip jabbing viciously into the ground, while Gohan threw his other hand forward and shouted, using a wave-styled kiai to throw Damion back and off of his feet. The other slid along on the surface of the glassed terrain before stabbing his sword into the ground and flipping upright once again, cape billowing brilliantly into the howling winds.   
  
"Good battle, for a monkey," Damion stated. Gohan didn`t reply.   
  
_ Moving all around screaming of the ups and downs  
Pollution manifested in perpetual sound  
The wheels go round and the sunset creeps  
Past the street lamps, chain-link and concrete  
  
_ The smoke cleared, finally, and Goku hovered silently above the ocean surface, breathing hard as Buu began to regenerate from the Ryu Ken. It hadn`t been Goku`s intention to try and off Buu the way he had, but the chance to end Buu early rather than put the Earth through even _more_ pain and suffering had been too tempting to pass up. Piece by piece, Buu got a bit bigger and a bit more re-defined, finally completing it`s regeneration after several seconds. This time, it wasn`t as quick to pass itself off as uninjured, Goku had actually managed to hurt it.   
  
Buu was finally getting that challenge it longed for. With a grin, it hurled forward at Goku, who blurred out of the way only to reappear in front of Buu as the demon stopped, catching it off gaurd with a hard kick into the side of the head.   
  
Buu, despite it`s face being distorted pretty badly, smirked, a move copied by Goku.   
  
"Not bad," Goku said. "You too," Buu replied, drifting off of Goku`s fist and puffing it`s head back out.   
  
The two paused again as Goku`s ki lowered for a moment. None of the forms of the Super Saiyan Three were easy, the second and third were the hardest. He couldn`t even manage either of them for more than twenty minutes most of the time, but this was a different case.   
  
Goku was pulling off of power that wasn`t even his to begin with now. Uranai Baba`s magic was infinitely stronger than most people could even comprehend, Goku included, and this was the source of power he was drawing off of. How else do you keep an entity like Death from noticing someone for all of 24 hours? It was cheating, plain and simple, pumping someone with so much hidden ki that it gave them a static signal against the laws of Death`s ability to detect things.   
  
Not that Death really minded, it _had_ lost that card game to Baba a few hundred years earlier, which was a coincidence since that was the same time Roshi had drank the supposed 'Elixir of Life,' little more than a concoction of water and food coloring mixed with sugar and salt.   
  
_ "Come on guys, I can`t stay much longer if I use everything up now,"_ Goku thought desperately.   
  
"Tired or something?" Buu asked. "Yeah, told you I wasn`t too used to this form... But I still have a trick or two left to show you," Goku stated. "A trick or two?"   
  
"Yep," Goku replied, throwing his hands to his side and building up from what remained of his own power. "It`s called..." He began, suddenly throwing his hands forward and screaming.   
  
"**_KAME HAME HA!!!_**"   
  
Buu howled as the beam tore through it`s gut like nothing, punching straight through and ripping Buu`s cape right off, streaking out into orbit and then out into deep space after several seconds. Goku paused, breathing a bit harder while Buu brought itself back up, already fully regenerated, right down to it`s cape.   
  
_ "Damn..."   
  
_ "Fun trick!" Buu laughed, throwing it`s own hands to it`s side and copying the move so perfectly that he didn`t even need to recite it`s name. With a thunderous flash, Buu threw it`s hands forward, blasting a pink Kame Hame Ha beam right at Goku, who wound his arms back and hammered the beam into a ball, which slipped right back into itself and caved in towards Buu, who nonchalantly headbutted it back at him. Goku again smacked the ball back at Buu, who this time backhanded over over the horizon and sent it barreling out to sea, towards the large sub-continental island chain that lay in the South West.   
  
"Ouch!" Babidee grinned, finally having gotten his breath back and finally having flown his way back towards the battlezone. "What kind of hero are you?! That just killed a full tenth of the planet`s population!" Babidee cackled.   
  
_ A little piece of paper with a picture drawn floats  
On down the street till the wind is gone  
The memory now is like the picture was then  
When the paper's crumpled up it can't be perfect again   
  
_ "... Shit..." Goku muttered to himself, finally falling out of the third level and fading back to normal with a wheeze. Pink lit up the entire ocean that he and Buu had been battling above and below, reaching right out to the coastline of West Capital. _"Good... Trunks and Goten are moving again,"_ Goku thought resolutely, still breathing hard.   
  
"Why`d you transform to normal?" Buu asked. "It`s a hard form to maintain," Goku explained simply. "I`m going to ask you now Buu, to not destroy _anything_ else for exactly three... no, _two_ days. At that time, a warrior even stronger than me will show up and fight you, okay?" Goku asked.   
  
Buu paused briefly as if giving serious consideration to the thought. "Well..."   
  
"**_NO!!!_**" Babidee interrupted. "I`ll think about it," Buu said with a shrug. "Buu! How dare you defy me!"   
  
"Good, now if you`ll excuse me," Goku replied, raising two fingers up to his forehead and vanishing instantly.   
  
"**_YOU LET HIM GET AWAY! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!_**" Babidee screamed.   
  
Buu frowned darkly. It was time to deal with the trash, once and for all.   
  
_ In the memory you'll find me  
Eyes burning up  
The darkness holding me tightly  
Until the sun rises up   
  
_ Faster and faster still, blades clashed as Gohan and Damion met again in several brief lock-ups, their battle carrying them across the scorched glass without so much as a second of rest between their attacks. Damion`s skill and agility were the hardest for Gohan to counter, even though he wasn`t very experienced in sword battling it was more the weight of the Zet Sword than anything else that was costing him numerous opportunities to end the fight, and it was the weight of the Zet Sword that was beginning to wear down his strength and endurance.   
  
Damion swiftly avoided another slash, stabbing at Gohan but finding nothing but air, recieving a smack in the chin from the butt of the Zet Sword`s hilt, which was drawn back and stabbed into the ground again, allowing Gohan to use it as an anchor while his feet once more left the ground. The first kick knocked Damion off of his feet, the second sent him higher into the air and the kiai to follow sent him flying right towards the infinite ceiling of the pocket underworld.   
  
Damion was slow to recover, gingerly coming to a stop up in the skies while Gohan flopped to his knees and gained a brief respite, trying desperately to recover from all of the energy he`d expended in the battle so far.   
  
"Losing power already?! What kind of weakling are you?!" Damion`s voice asked from the winds. Gohan grimaced, he`d forgotten, for a crucial moment, that Damion`s magics could probably get to him at any distance, especially long range. "Do you remember that threat I made earlier?" Damion`s voice questioned through the chilled winds around his bloodied, aching adversary.   
  
"Sticks and stones won`t break my bones, but neither will petty words," the voice recited. "Is that so?" The voice asked again. _"... Great,"_ Gohan thought with a wince. It was bad enough he was hurting all over from the earlier beating Damion`s magics had put on him, but now the former Prince of Earth was going to make through on some morbid threat or another made at the start of their battle.   
  
"Ugwedriol naeg nui e-palath," the voice chanted twice through the winds.   
  
Gohan promptly fell over screaming. "**_WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME?!_**" He demanded before even that question was lost in the sea of agony that was washing over him.   
  
"The spell of unspeakable pain within... How long until you die from all of the internal wounds the spell will grant?" Damion asked, rising gingerly out of the blackened ice and glass of the ground with a smile, Frostreaver held nonchalantly at his side as Gohan curled up into a fetal ball, gagging, screaming and feeling his body break as the spell began to increase even further.   
  
"I`m impressed," Damion admitted, walking around Gohan as the golden flames of the teen`s aura died, shortly after the lightning effect came to a sudden end. In his pain, Gohan had gone to the second level of Super Saiyan without even noticing it, but he`d fallen back down to the first just as quickly. Even that didn`t last though, the golden tint left Gohan`s hair after only a few seconds further, and his eyes blackened back to normal along with it.   
  
"And so the monkey falls," Damion stated, crouching down with a smirk. "I wonder how much more you can possibly endure?" The demon prince asked as the Zet Sword toppled over. Gohan could no longer support the insane weight of the object, let alone anything else about it. "Not much more it seems," Damion said with a smirk, standing up on his feet and dully kicking Gohan in the side before sheathing Frostreaver at his sword. "May you die a lingeringly painful, agonizing death," he stated, turning around and limping away slowly, laughing all the while.   
  
_ In the memory you will find me   
Eyes burning up   
The darkness holding me tightly   
Until the sun rises up  
  
_ "I have an idea!" Buu shouted, dancing around in the skies as Babidee fumed to himself. "An idea? What?" He asked, hands on his hips. "Is an idea going to kill that idiot from earlier?! No, it`s not!" Babidee replied. "Sure it will!" Buu smiled. "Eh? What do you mean?" Babidee asked, drifting closer to Buu. "It`s a secret, I`ll tell you if you come closer though..."   
  
Babidee drifted closer still.   
  
And then Buu sprang the trap, shooting it`s arm out and latched it`s hand tightly around Babidee`s throat. "The secret is that I don`t need you anymore!" It shouted with a laugh. "Buu!" Babidee wheezed before losing the ability to speak. "You can`t cast spells now, huh?" Buu asked. Babidee`s eyes went wide as his father`s creation drew it`s free arm back.   
  
"**_DIE MORON!!!_**"   
  
_ "Oh no..."   
  
Now you got me caught in the act  
You bring the thought back  
I'm telling you that  
I see it right through you   
  
_ "He did it," Goku commented in surprise. He`d only arrived on the Look Out all of a minute ago, and it was surprising enough that Buu seemed to be doing as he asked, but now Buu had killed Babidee. "I know," Piccolo replied. "What do you think he`ll do now?" The Namek asked. "I don`t know, I doubt he`ll blow up the Earth though, at least not for the next two days... Think I should`ve tried for three?"   
  
"No, I doubt Buu is patient enough for more than one and a half anyway," Piccolo replied with a frown. "Ever get that morbid feeling that you`re damned if you do, damned if you don`t?" Zangya asked, standing off to the side on the edge, just a few feet from Piccolo and Goku. "Every other month," Piccolo replied sardonically. "At least once every three years on average," Goku added.   
  
Behind the three of them, the rest of the current crew of the Look Out was gathered. Krillin and Juuhachi were busy occupying Marron, most of the others were playing cards and Videl and Dende were lounging around on the opposite edge of the Look Out.   
  
"How do you think Gohan and Vegeta are doing?" Goku asked.   
  
"Vegeta is probably suffering and in unbelievable agony..."   
  
  
"**_NEXT?! COME ON! ONE OF YOU SORRY AISU BASTARDS HAS TO HAVE SOMETHING LEFT FOR ME TO RIP OUT!!!_**"   
  
  
"And Gohan is probably either relaxing and enjoying himself in Heaven or trying to get King Kaio to train him the way he trained you."   
  
  
_"**THIS SUCKS!!!**"_   
  
  
"Wouldn`t surprise me," Zangya said with a shrug. "Agreed," Goku replied. "Tell me," Piccolo began, switching subjects pretty quickly. "Could you have beaten Buu?" He asked, glancing down at Goku, at the same time that Zangya leaned forward and did the same, though she had to glance up. Being short was a royal pain when the two people you were talking to happened to each be close to, or well over a foot taller than you were.   
  
"... If I`d hit him with all of my energy right at the start of the battle, dipped into Baba`s reserves and used a Kaio Ken all at once with a Ryu Ken or a Kame Hame Ha, probably," Goku admitted after a short silence. "Then why didn`t you?" Zangya asked. "Because... It`s not my place to be the Earth`s savior anymore. The kids - Gohan, Trunks and Goten, and anyone else who`s still alive - should be doing it, not me. I`m dead, I shouldn`t be getting involved anymore," Goku explained. "But you did show up when Gohan was fighting Bojack," Zangya pointed out. "You`re right. That _was_ me," Goku said with a shake of the head.   
  
"Eh?"   
  
"When Gohan was fighting the lot of us after you, Vegeta, Trunks and the others were all knocked out, Bojack had him in a bearhug. Kid would`ve died if not for a ball of light appearing out of no where and decking Bojack," Zangya explained. Piccolo sent Goku a nonchalantly amused smirk. "Yep. That`s Goku alright."   
  
"Well, what did you expect? Besides, that was different..."   
  
"How?"   
  
"I had to break the rules and go over King Kaio`s head to do it," Goku explained. "True. What now though?" Piccolo asked. "Now, I guess it`s up to Trunks and Goten. Once they learn Fusion, they should be just enough to take out Buu, after that I guess it`ll be up to them and the two of you to defend the Earth from any new threats, at _least_ until you can bring Gohan back with the Dragonballs. Not sure if you can bring Vegeta back again after what he did though..."   
  
"I doubt we could even if we wanted to. Vegeta was merely putting the icing on the cake when he killed those people, if he`d not done what he did and continued living on the path he was going in, then he might have made it to Heaven if he could live long enough to make up for everything he`d done in his life," Piccolo stated. "Guess so... Anything you want me to tell him at the next Afterlife Tournament?" Goku asked. "Afterlife Tournament?"   
  
"There`re a lotta gods out there, all of them have students, even the Dai Kaio pulls students from everywhere he can... My dad is one of them," Goku explained. "... I see..."   
  
"So yeah, anything you want me to tell him when I see him again?"   
  
"Just smack him a few times for me," Zangya cut in. "What she said," Piccolo added. "Will do," Goku replied.   
  
_ Now you got me caught in the act  
You bring the thought back  
I'm telling you that  
** I see it right through you  
  
** _ It felt like an hour as each agonizing second ticked by and another unbelievable jolt of pain went coursing through the teenaged hybrid`s body. As Damion had explained, the spell loosely translated off of the ancient language he had spoken it in to as 'unspeakable pain from within,' more precisely as 'unspeakable pain under the surface.' It lived up to it`s name regardless of the translation though, generally causing so much pain that most recipients tended to die of shock after a few minutes of unbelievable suffering, though the record was something like an hour or two.   
  
The time table of how long it took to kill a victim wasn`t exactly on Son Gohan`s mind though. Really, the time they had left wasn`t exactly on anyone`s mind when they were hit by the kind of spell that had so incapacitated the youth. Blood was frozen across his face, tears were falling out of his eyes and freezing wherever they fell, his hair stood on end, frosted over, and it hurt simply to breathe.   
  
The balance between ki and magic was an especially dangerous one indeed, while you could block one with the other, it required more effort to block magic with ki. Ki users rarely attacked known magic users head-on without desperation driving them, just like magic users rarely tried to fight ki users without the deck stacked in their favor at some level. Gohan had found out why the hard way, he could still vaguely register Damion`s emptied laughter in his ears.   
  
The demon prince himself wasn`t doing very good either, but he was certainly doing better than Gohan was. Still holding his bruised, likely swollen groin in one hand and the demonic sword known as Frostreaver in the other like a cane, Damion limped off from Gohan, each step taking a few seconds, each number of seconds allowing him to hear the grunts, screams, cries and agonized breathing of his would-be foe, and each grunt, scream, cry and agonized breath giving him a bit more to laugh about.   
  
And that was his mistake. Son Gohan was a brooding person, to add to this he was also half-human and humans had that innate emotional instability that Saiyans lacked while Saiyans drew incredible power from their emotions. It was a genetic molotov cocktail that Damion had just lit off, and the pain that the youth was experiencing wasn`t helping him very much either.   
  
"Don`t... Go," Gohan growled out, forcibly yanking his hand out from beneath the hilt of the Zet Sword and rolling over onto his stomach. Damion just laughed harder, another mistake. Gohan grit his teeth together and held back a scream while languidly forcing himself onto his hands and knees, breathing hard. "Don`t go," he growled out again, earning another laugh from Damion while Gohan achingly heaved himself up to his feet and bent down, finding it a little easier to pull the Zet Sword back up off of the ground again.   
  
"I said..." Gohan began, pulling the sword up over his shoulder as if it were a baseball bat.   
  
"**_DON`T GO!_**" Gohan screamed, slashing at Damion with the Zet Sword, causing a strong gust of wind to take off from the blade of the sword and whip at Damion, who glanced behind himself all too late. With a scream, Damion left his feet, rolling along on the glassed terrain before hauling himself back up, now sporting a downwards cut that ran from his forehead to the lower right portion of his chest, straight through armor and clothing, and the skin beneath it.   
  
"The _party_ hasn`t even _started yet_," Gohan bit out, raising the Zet Sword back up off of the ground, no longer the seemingly incompetent youth he`d been at the start of the fight. Damion seethed.   
  
"You want a party? I`ll give you a party," he threatened, throwing out his hand and shouting at Gohan just as a wall of invisible force rushed through the chilled air and smacked into the youth head-on, only to meet with a flash of white and split in two, missing the teenaged half-Saiyan almost completely. Almost, because the frozen blood and tears staining Son`s face practically ripped away, leaving him marred only by the cold rather than all of his injuries at once.   
  
"No monkey beats me, especially not a half-monkey!" Damion shouted, raising Frostreaver high and then swinging at Gohan, who ducked while the wave of semi-transparent ice planed over him like a scythe`s blade, missing completely. "Monkey see, monkey _**>DO!**_" Gohan replied, using one of Damion`s own taunts against him and slinging his blade back up again.   
  
The demon prince dove out of the way as a paper thin wall of silver-tinged fire blew past him, knifing through the air with the same swiftness as his own attack. "Let`s see you copy this," Damion challenged, holding Frostreaver back and above his head while holding his free hand out over the ground before him.   
  
"**_LIM ERIO HELEG BREGEDUUR UUAN!!!_**"   
  
In unison, seven shapes tore out of the ground, blue fire clinging around them like a smokey aura, obsidian armor holding tightly to enormous frames that were easily half larger than the first monster that Damion had sought to use in the battle. Each of them howled like wolves, blowing frigidly heated winds at their creator`s attacker, who only stood against the onslaught with the Zet Sword held before him like a shield, causing the iced flames of his attackers to divert around him like a sphere.   
  
"Makha honon!" Damion shouted at the creatures, pointing his free hand right at Gohan, who stood unphased like a brutalized knight in the midst of the frigid, eternally darkened, moonlit battlefield. "Want me?! _Come and get me_!" Gohan shouted right back, throwing his sword up and above his head in challenge before lowering it back down.   
  
Each of the seven goliaths responded in kind, rushing forward in ranks of two, save for the last one, who jumped over the others and came charging at the teen alone. Billions of years of tempered steel met burning ice in a brilliant clash of light, and the first creature staggered to the right, it`s left hand severed at the middle of the forearm. The creature turned to face it`s foe, who stood with his back turned to the monster, and found itself impaled outright as Gohan cast his hands and his sword to his side and narrowed his eyes.   
  
The first creature toppled over and shattered with a blast of cold smoke.   
  
_ In the memory you'll find me  
Eyes burning up  
The darkness holding me tightly  
Until the sun rises up  
  
_ "Kame..." Gohan began, blackened hair blowing to the side as his own bluish glow overwhelmed that of even his would-be attackers. An aura shot out of the ground around the teen`s feet, hurtling off a small whirlwind and throwing two of the creatures back into the ones behind them, sending all four hurtling towards Damion, who jumped over the group and landed on the glassed ice like it was water, vanishing within.   
  
"Hame..." Gohan continued, that glow becoming even brighter than before while shocks of energy lanced out from the butt of the sword, striking the two creatures who still stood and throwing them from their feet as well. The first vanished in a blast of glowing, frigid blue smoke like the first of the goliaths that Gohan had slain, the second smashed into the ground and rolled along into one of the other four, who had now resumed standing.   
  
"**_HA!!!_**"   
  
Three of the five creatures vanished outright, consumed in the blast as if they were twigs caught in the path of a tornado. A fourth was decimated as the beam of unearthly blue light shot past it, tearing it`s right arm from the shoulder and then blowing it from it`s feet and into the side of the beam, which instantly vaporized it like nothing.   
  
The fifth survived, stabbing it`s fingers into the already thrice-glassed ice and holding in place against the winds that shockwaved off of the beam, though it`s aura was temporarily extinguished by the hot-cold winds that were blazing off of the Kame Hame Ha.   
  
Somewhere off in the distance, the beam hit, and outside the mountain, an avalanche resulted. Even the Aisu fortress was shaken, but inside, Gohan stood firm, the tip of the Zet Sword pointing angrily in the direction of the Kame Hame Ha. And below, beneath the chaos, in a world that seemed even more unreal than the cold of Hell, a perfectly healed Damion stared up through a sea of black at the figure who stood on the surface.   
  
As his last golem attacked the teen and fell, Damion narrowed his eyes.   
  
_ "The sword is somehow amplifying his power now... How can a mere monkey - a **half** monkey no less - be doing this?!"_ Damion thought, watching the teen glare around for him and then narrow his eyes and stare down into the glassed over ground he stood on.   
  
_ "Shit, he senses me,"_ Damion thought with a glare, just as his foe began to angrily stab at the ground beneath his feet. "If you want me then," Damion began, holding his own swords up above him. "Have at me."   
  
"**_OIRA HELKH ALAGOS!!!_**"   
  
_ In the memory you will find me   
  
_ Gohan flipped back and away as the ground he`d been standing on shattered and a cyclone tore it`s way right through, arcing up villainously before clearing away to reveal Damion twisting to glare at Gohan, cape blasted up and behind the rest of him like a pair of black wings.   
  
"Time to die, monkey!"   
  
"Not today!" Gohan replied in kind, jumping back from a blast of ice blue energy that seemed to be a mixture of magic and ki, crystallizing the glassed, frosting ground even worse than it already was. A second jump and Gohan blasted through the air, stabbing his sword into the shaft of frigid air that had formed into Damion`s tornado, knowingly trying to disrupt it as sparks of electricity flashed off out of the side of the razored winds.   
  
_ Eyes burning up   
_ For his efforts, Gohan was thrown from the side of the tornado, twisting towards the ground and handspringing right back off of it, avoiding a lash of cold air that rang off of the tornado and sliced through the ice. Damion growled and slashed at Gohan through the winds of the miniature tornado, which seemed to imitate his movements and cast a wave of air like a whip at the oldest son of Goku and ChiChi, who only twisted sideways and slashed upward, blocking the attack and stopping it in it`s place.   
  
Damion slashed again, twice this time, and then a third and fourth time, then breaking into an outright flurry of stabs at Gohan, who blocked and parried each incoming blast of wind, sliding most off of the broadside of his sword and slicing others, dodging through some and outright smacking a few away in a relentless drive towards the tornado that his foe had surrounded himself in.   
  
_ The darkness holding me tightly   
  
_ "Just how I wanted it!" Damion shouted, causing Gohan to raise an eyebrow and pause in his assault, just as the onslaught of winds halted and the tornado itself came barrelling down at him, with Damion at it`s forefront, laughing insanely all the way down.   
  
"**_DIE!!!_**"   
  
Gohan grimaced and lowered himself back down into a defensive stance. _"Here I go,"_ he thought, waiting anxiously for Damion to finish coming down.   
  
_ Until the sun rises up   
  
"What was that?"_ Videl thought to herself, feeling her heart skip several beats and the air suddenly leave her lungs with an empty feeling.   
  


_ End Part Sixteen  
  


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_

**Author`s Note:** Another brutally long chapter... Don`t worry, they`ll start getting shorter after this one.  
  
Though I`m not going to stop cliffhanging the hell out of you! *Evil laugh.*  
  
Sh33p out. 


	18. Crawling in the Dark

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ. I don`t even own myself! Neither do you, Bill Gates owns us all!  
  


* * *

  
  
** Hybrid Theory: Generations   
**_Crawling in the Dark   
  
  
  
_

"**_DIE!!!_**" Damion howled as the infinitely chilled cyclone tilted further and further, finally collapsing in the other combatant`s direction. Razored winds lashed from the twister, flailing through the already frigid air that seperated the two warriors. False moonlight poured through as well as you could expect, Hell`s own underworld wasn`t exactly a well lit place after all.   
  
_ "Here I go,"_ Gohan thought, raising the Zet Sword up and biding his time while the fractions of seconds ticked by like hours. "One..."   
  
Damion came closer.   
  
"Two..."   
  
Closer still, several small cuts appeared across Gohan`s exposed skin.   
  
"_Three_!" The teen shouted, diving out of the way of Damion`s own blade while the warrior mage descended from his own attack. Time was short but the youth had to use it for all it was worth, rolling over onto his back and stabbing the immense weight of the Zet Sword up into the very heart of the whirlwind, gaining the same flashing shocks of electricity as a result before the winds finally took effect, tearing the Zet Sword, and Gohan, off of the ground in a half-circle before Gohan tore the Zet Sword loose of the whirlwind and touched down on the ground next to it, diving forward only to come to a stop before swinging his sword almost blindly into the midst of the half-tunnel of razored ice winds.   
  
_ I will dedicate  
And sacrifice my everything  
For just a second's worth  
Of how my story's ending  
  
_ His blade clashed with another, just as the tornado faded away to reveal Damion standing in a rounded trench, fighting desperately against the sheer force behind Gohan`s strike, which had only barely been blocked off by Frostreaver. The demon prince briefly yeilded in his efforts, an action that allowed Gohan to slip forward under the combined weight of his attack and the Zet Sword, which forced him to lose his balance.   
  
As a result of this chain of events, the youth tumbled down and into Damion`s magic-driven after image, which promptly detonated in a blue flash that sent Gohan and the Zet Sword tumbling across the blackened glass and out into the snow, imprisoned in a pointed block of ice.   
  
The real Damion appeared a few seconds later, collapsing onto his hands and knees in exhaustion. While it was true that he held an experience edge that outweighed virtually all of the foes that the other fighter had ever faced in his life, and he held the trump card of having a good many magics to throw around, Damion was no where near as relentless and powerful as Gohan was. In their present states, they were roughly even in speed and agility - bar the fact that Gohan had been temporarily locked into a frosty prison - but strength and skill, combined with endurance, were what would going to decide the course of the battle.   
  
The ground rumbled briefly. Damion rose again, holding Frostreaver in one hand and using the other to rummage around in the hidden space between his back and his cape, eventually removing three wooden-looking marbles, holding one between each finger. The ground rumbled again and Damion tensed up visibly, narrowing his eyes and biding his time.   
  
The ice block shattered and Damion stopped biding his time completely, jumping back as Gohan, enveloped by an aura of clashing gray and orange, lunged out of the fog that resulted, the Zet Sword stabbing through the chilled winds of the pocket underworld with a whistling screech. _"Shit,"_ Gohan thought, landing on one foot and jumping back into the air as the demon prince threw the three marbles, which passed around the teen and then detonated in three brilliant flashes.   
  
With a loud crash, the Zet Sword hit the ground, sinking into the snow several inches. Gohan landed on his feet not too far away from it, though his aura refused to die down this time. Damion lunged forward this time, but Gohan dodged to the side and lashed out with a knee into the former Prince of Earth`s stomach, an elbow finding it`s mark on the small of Damion`s back at the exact same instant. Frostreaver tumbled through the air before smacking into the snow and resting on the surface, not sinking like the Zet Sword had.   
  
Damion stayed in place though, held tightly by the trap before a single fist slammed brutally into his untarnished cheek, busting it open in the same fashion that Gohan had drawn first blood at the beginning of the battle. The demon prince tumbled freely out of Gohan`s grasp and landed with a roll into the snow.   
  
"I blinded you..." He wheezed.   
  
"Who said I had to see you to hit you?" Gohan asked. "How can a monkey be beating me?" Damion thought aloud, painfully rising up and standing once more. "... Will you stop calling me that already?!" Gohan yelled. "No. _Monkey_," Damion replied. He probably would have smirked if it didn`t hurt to even speak.   
  
"Tulu," Damion muttered, causing Frostreaver to rise up off of the snow and drift through the air, back into Damion`s grasp once more. Gohan wiped his eyes and bent forward slightly, spreading his legs into a traditional stance and holding his hands up in Damion`s direction. "Come get me..."   
  
"With pleasure."   
  
_ Show me what it's for  
Make me understand it  
I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer  
Is there something more than what I've been handed?  
I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer  
  
_ Damion dove forward, Gohan flipped up, moving sideways and over his would-be assassin with a grace that defied most people twice his age. Landing with a quiet thump on the ground, Gohan phased out of view in an instant, reappearing over the Zet Sword and grabbing the weapon up off of the ground. It still felt light as a feather to him for some reason, Gohan was willing to bet it had to do with all of the damage he`d taken numbing him to the extent that he couldn`t feel strain on anything.   
  
He didn`t know he was wrong about that, but still.   
  
Damion dove at the teen, who only hopped to the side and allowed his attacker to pass by again. It proved a mistake though, Damion halted on a time and twisted around, throwing a hand out with a loud yell that knocked Gohan off of his feet and out of the snow, back onto the glassed/iced-over ground that had once been Damion`s home and the area around it.   
  
The demon prince was quick to capitalize, rushing forward in a sprint before hopping onto the slick ground and sliding his way over to Gohan, who barely managed to roll out of the way when Damion stabbed at him with Frostreaver, embedding the ice blade into the ground like an anchor.   
  
Gohan was on his feet by the time Damion tore Frostreaver free, and the elder fighter was forced on the defensive against an onslaught of slashes from his younger foe, who epitomized the term 'relentless' to the letter, pressing home with his advantage and eventually managing to throw Damion back ever so slightly. Damion halted, only to howl in pain as the Zet Sword found it`s mark, skinning off the armor, shirt sleeve and flesh from the outer portion of his right forearm, a move that left the former prince reeling long enough for Gohan to kick him in the stomach and try to behind him, an attempt that ended in futility as Damion executed another mirage trick.   
  
This one didn`t encase Gohan in ice though. That was welcome. The teen glared behind himself, slashing at Damion as he reappeared, but the prince simply flipped back and sank into the ground again, diving back into view behind Gohan once again, completely healed a second time in the battle before mule kicking the youth in the back of his head.   
  
Gohan slipped forward but he made it count, recklessly stabbing above and behind himself and hitting home.   
  
_ Help me carry on  
Assure me it's ok to use my heart  
And not my eyes  
To navigate the darkness   
  
_ Damion gagged, feeling the Zet Sword ruthlessly carve through his side and punch back out. Icey red-and-blue blood splashed out of the wound and Gohan fell forward, tearing the Zet Sword back out in the process.   
  
The demon prince fell towards the ground, intent on sinking in again, but his efforts were in vain. Just as his legs began to sink into the glassy ground beneath them, a hand clamped shut around the back of his head and yanked him back up, holding him off of the ground by several inches.   
  
"Reminds me of mythology class," Gohan mused, wiping his mouth with his free hand since the Zet Sword was embedded in the ground beside him, exactly where he`d left it. "Don`t kill me..." Damion pleaded. "I wonder how many people begged the same of you?" Gohan asked, squeezing tighter around Damion`s skull. "Too many, I`d bet," he answered for himself.   
  
"No."   
  
"Why?" Gohan asked. "Because I can help you get out of here," Damion explained. "I`m not lost, dumb ass," Gohan replied. "I haven`t got any use for you and you`d just stab me in the back the moment the chance presented itself to you."   
  
"So?!"   
  
"So what?"   
  
"Don`t kill me!" Damion begged, flailing around and trying to kick at Gohan, who merely stepped out of the way of each kick. "You may be pretty tough but you`re really not much without that sword, are you?" Gohan asked, raising his free hand and balling it into a fist. "I`m no-_**AH!!!**_" Damion screamed as the demi-saiyan pounded his fist straight into the demon prince`s back, caving in several of Damion`s ribs.   
  
"I don`t even need to kill you to unlock the power in the Zet Sword, do I? You`re worthless," Gohan exclaimed. "Go pester somebody else," he ordered, lazily casting Damion off of their small battlefield and breathing a sigh of relief at the soft crash in the distance as Damion plowed through the snow.   
  
_ Will the ending be  
Ever coming suddenly?  
Will I ever get to see  
The ending to my story?  
  
"Time to go back to Kaioshin`s planet... Just need to find that door out of Hell that Dad bragged about," _Gohan thought, breathlessly reaching down and picking up the Zet Sword. It felt heavier now, but not by much. Resting the weapon broadside on his shoulder, Gohan gingerly began to walk - albeit with a stiff leg - towards the distant, faded light that rested towards the bottom of the false moon in the night skies.   
  
"**_HELKA GURTH!!!_**"   
  
Gohan dove to the side as a beam of ice blue shot through the air, powering off into the distance and hitting with crystallizing impact into a wall, spreading glowing blue ice off in the distance of the pocket underworld, along the wall of the elevated staircase into Hell`s own mini-Hell, which promptly detonated like a shaped thermonuclear bomb. Gohan rose an arm over his face as a shield and glared back behind himself, spotting a healed, albeit ragged looking Damion off in the distance, Frostreaver resting over his shoulder, both hands held in front of himself in a manner similar to Vegeta`s Final Flash.   
  
"You idiot," Gohan bit out.   
  
"**_I`M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU YET, MONKEY!!!_**" Damion called out over the roar of his own blast, dropping both hands to his sides and allowing Frostreaver to drop down and stab itself into the black ice and glass of the ground. "The party has only just begun!" The demon prince challenged.   
  
"Wrong again," Gohan growled, turning away from the explosion and lowering the Zet Sword down in front of himself with a sneer.   
  
"**_THIS PARTY`S OVER!!!_**"   
  
_ Show me what it's for  
Make me understand it  
I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer  
Is there something more than what I've been handed?  
I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer  
  
_ Gohan tore forward, covering a dozen feet with every stride in his run at Damion, who responded in kind by jumping towards him with Frostreaver held high. The two combatants met half-way, clashing repeatedly as the Zet Sword met the only weapon that could stand up to it, a dozen rings of metal against metal before a dual whistle and then a raking of steels. Gohan pressed on, Damion slid back unwillingly, leaving trench marks in his feet`s wake.   
  
The two were locked together, and Frostreaver seemed to growl an unearthly roar in defiance of the Zet Sword, a roar it`s master only echoed. Gohan halted on a dime, jumping back as Damion seemed to pause where he was, all resistance fading away. Backflipping in mid-air, Gohan brought his knees down and dropped them across the demon prince`s shoulders as he reappeared, wracking Damion with pain.   
  
"You could have just walked away!" Gohan exclaimed, smashing the the butt of the Zet Sword across Damion`s nose and breaking it soundly with an accompanying gush of blood across the black ice. The demon prince tumbled back and Gohan came to stand above him, ready to strike the killing blow.   
  
Damion only responded with another loud calling of one of his spells, causing another ice fist to slam into the teen`s chin. Gohan stumbled back, and Damion slung himself back up to his feet, whipping around with his cape billowing in the wind.   
  
_ So when and how will I know?  
How much further do I have to go?  
How much longer until I finally know?  
Because I'm looking and I just can't see  
What's in front of me, in front of me  
  
_ Damion stabbed for Gohan`s face, a move that proved partially successful. Gohan grit his teeth as Frostreaver slit across one of his cheeks, and Damion almost laughed as the two pressed together. Resting the greater portion of his mass across Gohan`s shoulder, it seemed ideal for him to try and stab the youth right in the back. It was all but perfect.   
  
Except for one tiny little factor...   
  
Damion twitched as the realization hit him that while he had managed to score a minor cut across Gohan`s cheek, Gohan had all but impaled him on the Zet Sword`s fiery blade. Wincing and trembling as Gohan lifted him off and stood up straight, Damion`s grasp on Frostreaver tightened to the extent that his knuckles, already a pale tinge of white like the rest of him, began to bleed. The two stood briefly like that, before Gohan coldly narrowed his eyes and twisted the Zet Sword in Damion`s mid-section, earning a grunt of pain from the other.   
  
"I think..." Damion began, pausing with a cough as Gohan dragged the Zet Sword out of his stomach and kicked him down onto his knees. "I understand..." He said to himself, even as the blood poured out across his lap and onto the ice of the ground. "... Now..."   
  
_ Show me what it's for   
  
_ "... You didn`t defeat me because you were a Saiyan..."   
  
_ Make me understand it   
  
_ "I did it because I`m also a human," Gohan finished for him, winding up with the Zet Sword. "Touché human... I finally understand," Damion muttered with a whistful smirk, raising Frostreaver up to his forehead.   
  
_ I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer   
  
_ The killing blow was instant. Damion`s head, and the upper half of Frostreaver, both tumbled from their respective places upon his shoulders and the rest of the sword. With slow thuds on the glassed ground, both landed, followed by a ringing thud from the greater portion of the sword. Damion`s headless body followed a few seconds later, tumbling sideways and landing on atop his own severed head. Both vanished with twin flashes of iced smog a few seconds afterward, leaving only the severed halves of Frostreaver to lay upon the ground.   
  
_ Is there something more than what I've been handed?  
I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer  
  
_ "It took you long enough," a new voice stated from behind. Gohan languidly lowered the Zet Sword down to his side, stiffly, exhaustedly turning to face the newcomer. "Long time no see," he greeted with a half-smirk.   
  
"Indeed. I`ve come to take you back to Shin`s planet."   
  
"Just hurry up, I think I`m gonna pass out from exhaustion at this rate," Gohan muttered, using the Zet Sword like a cane in his stumbling walk towards Setsuna, who rolled her eyes in response and reached out, resting an arm across Gohan`s right shoulder.   
  
The two vanished in a flash of green and purple light, leaving Hell behind, along with all the battles, tears, screams and drama that went with it.   
  


_ End Part Seventeen_  


  


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**Author`s Note:** And so ends the Damion sub-arc... You`ll see a lot more significance to come in this one later on, trust me.  
  
**CysticLOL17:** Yeah... The endless battle in Hell was something that even I had a bit of trouble trying to imagine, but as time went by it became more and more clear to me. I`d almost pay to see someone do some good fanart for this one, it has several moments and poster-styled imagines I can think of that practically beg to be drawn, like Gohan`s stabbing of Damion or Goku reaching out to Goten among other things.  
  
**cobra:** Glad ya like it! Shame this is the last story in the series but it ain`t over yet, count on it. Just keep readin`.  
  
**diamondgirl:** Welcome back! :B And yeah, I was hoping to gain that weirded out type of reaction from people who`d seen him in OP. I had it planned for quite some time actually but... I won`t spoil what happens to him for you *Evil cackle.* Yeah, this one was way shorter than the last two, hope it didn`t give ya brain hemorhage trying to read it all. And yes, yes I do take occasional days to waste time thinking Hells up, though I`m kinda flattered about the Tolkien comment since I modeled my image of Or-Helkh on what Sauron`s fortress on Mount Doom would probably look like if it was in a frigidly cold place rather than built out of a volcano, dolled up inside a bit since the Aisu strike me as the type who`d either live in absolute luxury(according to them, anyway) or would be absolutely miserable.  
  
And yes, I intend to leave you hanging again. And again and again and again. I am **_EVIL L33T SH33P-MEH!!!_** Run away! *Cackle.*  
  
Sh33p out, leave a review and see ya next time! 


	19. A Place For My Head

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


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** Hybrid Theory: Generations  
**_ A Place For My Head_

  
  
  
  
It had been five minutes since Trunks and Goten had departed Capsule Corporation at their best speed, of which, all of a minute and a half had been spent in silence between the two half-breed Super Saiyans, interrupted only by the brooding echoes of their auras. The two hadn`t said so much as a word over the past minute, seeing as Trunks was on the verge of throwing an angry tantrum and Goten was just wanting to get back to the Look Out.   
  
Two minutes ago, they`d had a harsh arguement, because five minutes ago, they`d found the Dragon Radar, not in a pile of Bulma`s old inventions, but in the front passenger`s seat of one of the airbuses. Two minutes ago, they`d had a harsh arguement, because five minutes ago, they`d left Capsule Corporation in a hurry, alone, followed shortly by Goku`s teleportation to the Look Out.   
  
Two minutes ago, they`d had a harsh arguement, because three minutes ago, Buu had levelled West Capital City, with the entire population vanishing in a quasi-nuclear explosion. Two minutes ago, they`d had a harsh arguement, because three minutes ago, Trunks` grandparents had finally met their mutual end.   
  
"There`s the Look Out," Goten said dryly. Trunks shrugged in response as the two straightened their flight paths upward, rocketing by Korin`s Tower and spiraling up past the bottom of the Look Out, touching down in quasi-unison a few feet from Goku, Piccolo and Zangya. Both boys gradually faded out of Super Saiyan, and Trunks wiped a hand over his eyes. In one day, he`d been reduced to only having his mother to call family.   
  
The Mirai version of him could more than likely sympathize, at least this time`s Trunks had actually known his father as more than a person from another timeline. "Here ya go," Goten said, offering the Dragon Radar up to Goku, who gave a nod and then turned around. "Hey Bulma! We`ve got the Radar now!" He shouted, wiping a bit of sweat from his brow and then breathing a sigh of relief.   
  
"We can at least wish your grandparents back now," Goten said, glancing back at Trunks, who only sneered in response. "... It`ll be okay," Goten shrugged and turned around. Trunks growled beneath his breath and turned around, powering up a low level ki blast and carelessly slinging it over the side of the Look Out, willing the attack to detonate after a few seconds, cracking his neck and then glancing back over his shoulder.   
  
"Feeling better now?" Piccolo asked, stepping by Goten and standing next to Trunks. "I`ll get by," the boy replied, hiding a great deal of anger in the process. "I know you will. Just don`t let your anger cloud your judgement," Piccolo replied, turning away and glancing off in the direction of what sounded like a high pitched voice humming out an old Country music tune.   
  
"Great," Piccolo grumbled as Urania Baba floated up past him and drifted over to Goku. "You have a half an hour left, Son," she informed, interrupting Goku`s conversation with Bulma and causing the Saiyan to topple over sideways in shock. "I was wonderin` when you`d show up," Roshi commented, walking away from the others of the little side group that had formed.   
  
"Can it," Baba ordered a step ahead of time. There was one thing that Baba absolutely despised about her younger brother, and that was the key fact that Roshi defied her abilities to predict the way she predicted others. She could figure him out, but she couldn`t see his individual future, a fact that annoyed the living daylights out of her. "Ah, you can it," Muten replied with a sour tone. "How can you cut his time down to only half an hour?"   
  
"Death`s laws, take it up with Korin if you don`t like it," Baba replied with annoyance. "That so, eh?" Roshi asked. "Don`t. Even. Think it," Baba growled. "And why not?" Roshi asked. "Will one of you tell us what the hell you`re talking about?" Zangya asked. "Let`s just say that Korin`s luck at card games isn`t very good. Black cats and all that," Roshi replied. "Excluding the small fact that said-Black Cat just got wiped off of the face of the Earth a few minutes ago," Uranai exclaimed with a shrug. "... Damn. I thought that thing was immortal?"   
  
"Immortality doesn`t do much good when something can just blow you apart at the atomic level," Baba replied. "... Are you talking about my Dad`s cat?" Bulma asked with a blink. "... Oh, us? No, don`t mind us, we`re just crazy people," Baba replied, crossing her eyes and taking on a semi-drunkard, semi-insane tone of voice. Bulma casually stepped back, half-hiding herself behind Goku.   
  
_ I watch how the  
Moon sits in the sky in the dark night  
Shining with the light from the sun  
The sun doesn't give life to the moon to assuming  
The moon's going to owe it one  
  
_ "Half an hour, right?" Goku asked, cutting into the conversation with audible exhaustion lacing his voice. "Twenty-five minutes actually," Uranai replied, tugging the sleeve of her coat back enough to reveal no less than four _extremely_ pricey looking watches. "Damn... That`s not good," Goku grumbled to himself, glancing to Goten and Trunks, then Piccolo and Zangya. "Alright, you four are going to have to learn Fusion _quick_ or the Earth is doomed," Goku stated. "Four?" Zangya asked sourly. "You honestly don`t expect me to do that dance," she added with a twitch.   
  
"Payback`s such a sweet, kindhearted bitch, isn`t it?" Piccolo asked, grabbing Goten and Trunks by their ears and calmly walking past Zangya. Goku stared briefly. "You know... I never thought I`d see him having to fight to hold back laughter," the Saiyan mused to himself once Piccolo had gotten a few yards away. Zangya was still standing in place, twitching. "Bad enough I have to wear this damned body armor, now you`re making me learn how to do that god forsaken dance?" She complained. "Well, look at it this way, at least you get to enjoy seeing him subjected to it too," Bulma pointed out.   
  
"... You know, you _do_ have a point," Zangya replied, thoughtfully rubbing her chin and walking around Bulma and Goku, following Trunks, Goten and Piccolo towards the palace. "I still don`t see the big deal..."   
  
"Don`t worry Goku, you will someday," Bulma replied with a shake of the head.   
  
"I guess it`s time to start teaching them Fusion then... Care to tag along and watch?" Goku asked. "Nah, I don`t think Piccolo would take kindly to any of us watching him do that dance... Could drag along Krillin though," Bulma suggested. "Nah, Krillin isn`t one for dancing," Goku replied. "Besides, he`d probably be too busy choking back laughter to be much good," he added while walking off after the other four.   
  
"... Well maybe if you hadn`t pawned the damn thing to Tison for a new crystal ba-" "_**YOU LEAVE MY BALLS OUT OF THIS!!!**_" Baba screamed. Roshi paused, everyone stared at Baba.   
  
"... Ya know, sometimes I wonder if I really have to do more than goad you into insultin` yourself, Sis," Muten stated sarcastically. "Just shut up Muten, before I blow your ass into the next dimension," Uranai stated. "Kill me, ya mean?"   
  
"No, I`ll send you to a different dimension from this one."   
  
"Such as?"   
  
"Remember that nightmare you had about being tied up in a pit with a hormonal tentacle demon named Bubba the Love Sponge?"   
  
"**_YOU WIN!!!_**"   
  
"That`s what I thought!"   
  
"... I don`t think I wanna know..."   
  
"Then don`t ask," Baba and Roshi both snapped at Bulma, who 'politely' excused herself by turning around and making a point that someone probably needed her for something.   
  
  
"I`m honestly beginning to think we`re the only sane people in this place," Videl commented sourly. "Sanity is overrated," Dende replied. "True, but still," Videl said with a shrug. "If you were sane, you wouldn`t be talking to a little green man in tan white robes with the mark of Kami on the back of his vest claiming to be Earth`s supreme deity on an artificial island in low orbit without an oxygen mask as the entire world faces off with the very definition of the word 'Genocide,' who, despite prior conceptions, is actually a morbidly obese wad of bubble gum with a serious case of the 'Terrible Twos,'" Dende reminded her.   
  
"... Point noted."   
  
"Moving along."   
  
  
"Try it again," Goku ordered. Trunks tensed up, Goten followed suit, delayed only by a moment. "Stop, try again," Goku ordered once more. Both boys lowered their arms and then tried again, taking the first pose of the Fusion dance. "Good, good... Now, try phase two..."   
  
Both boys shimmied awkwardly towards one another and then paused, somehow balancing on one foot each. "Tighten your leg up a bit, Trunks," Goku ordered. "Like this?" Trunks asked, hiking his leg up to the extent that he had trouble balancing. "No dumb ass, like Goten`s doing," Jack commented sourly, though he knew Trunks couldn`t hear him.   
  
"No, like this," Goten stated. Trunks nodded and did as Goten said, easing his leg into a point where it was bent, pointed at Goten. "This is hard," Trunks commented, having trouble keeping his body twisted in so many directions at once. "Keep trying, it`s worth it," Goku ordered. "Phase three," Goku ordered with a nod. Trunks and Goten both straightened themselves back out for a moment, then bent over sideways towards each other, fingers touching at the tips for a fraction of a second before an arguement broke out between them and the poses broke.   
  
"Okay," Goku grumbled. "Let`s take it from the top..."   
  
Seventeen tries later, Goten and Trunks were starting to get the hang of things, managing to match up nigh-perfectly on their sixteenth try only to botch things slightly on their seventeenth. Zangya had a bored look across her face, Marron, who was still being carried around by Krillin, was simply staring at the two boys like their was something wrong with them, Krillin was exchanging semi-heated glares with Bulma, who was infrequently trying to make excuses over the fact that Trunks had the dancing coordination of a quadrapalegic blind man with two left feet glued to his forehead.   
  
But things had to hit a break eventually, and they did. Goten flopped down first, and Trunks was intentional in jabbing his elbow into the younger boy`s scalp to use as a resting place before Goten very nonchalantly backhanded him across the nose.   
  
"Well, it looks like they`re actually learning at least," Zangya commented with a shrug. "Maybe I should have killed Buu when I had the chance," Goku replied with a twitch. "Only now do you realize. Has anyone ever told you that you`re a borderline retard?" Piccolo asked, only half-faking the insult. "Only Bulma, but she calls everyone and their mom that so I guess it doesn`t count," Goku said with a shrug. "Besides, you`re just jealous that Zangya`s got hair," he pointed out.   
  
"... Who in the blue **_HELL_** is giving off these ideas?!"   
  
"Just admit it," Zangya replied, mockingly waving her hair around. "... One of these days, I _am_ going to kill you. And shave your corpse bald," Piccolo threatened. "Who`s the retard now, eh?" Goku asked cryptically. "... Okay, idiot-savant. Better?" Piccolo asked. "It`ll do," Goku replied.   
  
_ It makes me think of how you act to me you do  
Favors and then rapidly you just  
Turn around and start asking me about  
Things you want back from me  
  
_ "Gooo-kuuu!" Uranai`s voice echoed, followed by a sharp thwack and a thud. Roshi coughed innocently and idly went to rubbing off dust from his staff. "... Well, it bought you a bit o` time, didn`t it?" He asked. "You of course realize she`ll probably carry through on her word, right?" Zangya asked. "Eh... That`s what pocket dimensions are for!" Roshi cackled before darting down the steps, vanishing into a hallway and taking a sharp right turn towards the passage marked 'Hall of Pocket Dimentia.' Roshi was apparently beginning to lose his sight...   
  
"They`re all insane..."   
  
"Hey," Goten spoke up, causing Goku to shift his attentions again. "Since you`re about to have to go and all, mind if we took a break?"   
  
Goku nodded. "Sure, I guess..."   
  
"Since you have to go soon anyway, can you show us Super Saiyan Three again? I wanna see it up close," Trunks explained, earning a sharp glare from Goten. "What?" He asked. "I only have a few more minutes with him as is, I don`t wanna waste `em just to see some power I`m never going to have," Goten replied in a whispering growl. "Ah, shyaddap... It`s only a few minutes..."   
  
Goku shrugged after a few seconds. "Alright, but to hit this level, you`ll probably have to master Fusion," he stated, just as ChiChi entered the room, intent on watching the training of the boys, only to be dragged right back down the stairs by Bulma, followed by Krillin, who was still holding Marron.   
  
"Ready? I`m only going to do this once so..."   
  
"I seriously doubt they`ll be able to miss it, even if they wanted," Piccolo stated, nonchalantly taking a step back, a move followed by Zangya.   
  
"Here I go..."   
  
_ I'm sick of the tension, sick of the hunger  
Sick of you acting like I owe you this  
  
_ Buu paused, finishing the construction of it`s house with a slightly annoyed look. The sky had turned black, it wasn`t supposed to turn black for a few more hours, but like earlier, it was already black again. "This is weird," Buu commented with annoyance, feeling the ground tremble briefly beneath it`s feet.   
  
"Maybe it`s those guys getting stronger!" He announced to himself with an enormous grin. "I`ll get lots of rest and get good and ready for them!" It added, diving up through the side entrance and heading towards the bathroom. "But not before bathtime!"   
  
  
Goku held back a wheeze, finishing the ascension with a deafening shock of sound throughout the Look Out, rattling the enormous structure to it`s very core and almost sending Videl plummeting over the edge as a result. Uranai Baba had tumbled freely for several dozen feet before smacking into the jovial gut of Popo, who`d caught her crystal ball as an afterthought, while the small crowd of people who could genuinely call themselves 'normal' had mostly fallen over.   
  
In the room though, Piccolo and Zangya stood as two of the only four people on the artificial satellite who hadn`t been moved in some way or another. The other counted as a certain blonde bombshell of a cyborg and a Namek-turned-planetary god, who`d both been able to keep standing to some degree or another without any problems. Goten and Trunks hadn`t been knocked off their feet from the sheer force of the transformation, but they`d definately felt it, and Trunks was presently plastered into a pillar while Goten was planted into the ceiling, both boys generally unharmed.   
  
"Worth the wait?" Goku asked as the two boys tumbled loosely to the floor, glancing up at him with a combination of emotions that ranged from envy to fear and admiration to disbelief. "Yeah," Trunks mumbled. "No," Goten replied, still obviously displeased with his friend at the moment. "Well... Do either of you boys want to reach this level?" Goku asked. Even his voice had seemingly undergone a transition, from it`s normal cheerful tone to a lower, raspier kind of speech.   
  
"Yes!" Trunks shouted. Goten only snorted and fought the unbelievably powerful urge to knock out a few of his friend`s baby teeth a few years early. "Do it! Do it!" Jack shouted. "Shut up," Goten growled at the miniature figure who was dancing about his father`s feet without a care in the world. "Then learn Fusion," Goku ordered, powering back down with a wheeze.   
  
"How long do you think Baba will be out?"   
  
"All of three minutes most likely," Piccolo replied. "Doesn`t matter," a new voice cut in as a small figure draped in black walked out of the non-existant shadows of a nearby pillar. "Who are you?" Goku asked, glancing over to the little figure in black who stood before him. "Nobody in particular, just Death himself," the figure replied as casually as if giving the weather. Goku blinked. "Uh..."   
  
"No, Korin isn`t the God of Death. He used to be, but he gave that up to act as God of the Mind when Leon retired," Death informed. "Then why did Baba say to take it up with him?"   
  
"Same reason he lives in a hundreds of miles tall tower shaped like a needle from Hell; he`s the only local God in direct, open contact with mortals. We lump the paperwork on him because of that," Death replied simply enough. "... So that`s why he`s so busy all the time," Goku commented thoughtfully. "Well, whatever... I`m on a tight shift Goku, got genocide down there and I don`t like being held up to give someone special treatment."   
  
"Could you let me stay until Baba wakes up and takes me back herself?"   
  
"I`d rather not..."   
  
"Want to lighten the paperwork on Korin?"   
  
"Paperwork? That bastard owns the most powerful super computer in the universe! Why do you think that tower is so big?!"   
  
"... Hm..."   
  
"I`ll give you twelve seconds to think something up, because in twelve seconds, Buu is going to wake up from his nap."   
  
"Uhm... Suppose I could challenge you to an eating contest..."   
  
"Death doesn`t eat."   
  
"Arm wrestle?"   
  
"I hate arm wrestling."   
  
"Thumb war?"   
  
"**_YOU`RE ON PUNK!_**" Death shouted enthusiastically, virtually throwing his hand up at Goku to seal the deal. Zangya twitched.   
  
"Even Death is insane on this planet," she muttered. "And this surprises you?" Piccolo asked. "Nope," Zangya replied sarcastically, watching as Goku and Death declared a thumb war on each other.   
  
_ Find another place to feed your greed  
While I find a place to rest  
  
_ "Come on, you gotta admit it was cool to see up close!" Trunks shouted. Goten only replied with a twitch and a glare. "Shut up, Trunks."   
  
"What`s gotten into you?" Trunks demanded, placing his hands on his hips as Goten sat back down and leaned against a pillar, watching the thumb war play out. Death was winning. "Leave me alone," he ordered annoyedly. Trunks snorted. "No. Why are you so upset?"   
  
"Did you get to say good-bye to your dad?"   
  
"... Yes..."   
  
"I didn`t get to say good-bye to Gohan, and now I`m gonna have to say good-bye to _my_ dad a lot sooner than I would have otherwise, all because _you_ wanted a show," Goten stated accusingly. Trunks blinked. "It`s not like you would`ve gotten to know him any better," he commented. "... You`re a real dick, know that Trunks?" Goten asked, glaring over at the other boy. "Uhm... Huh?" Trunks asked. "Kill, kill, kill!" Jack shouted. "Just go away."   
  
"Fine," Trunks shrugged, walking off.   
  
"Come on man, **_BLAST HIS BRAINS OUT!_**" Jack encouraged, jumping up and down on Trunks` shoulder. Goten ignored him, glancing back over the ledge, over the flat tiling of the outside of the Look Out and to the clouds far below.   
  
_ I want to be in another place  
I hate when you say you don't understand   
  
"Why me?"_ Goten asked himself as Jack continued screaming things out at random, trying desperately to ignite some kind of fire storm.   
  
_ You'll see it's not meant to be  
I want to be in the energy, not with the enemy   
  
_ With a sigh, the boy leaned his head back aganst the pillar and resigned himself to watching the thumb war play itself out, trying in vain to ignore the screaming little demon that was bounding around the floor around him, imploring him to do things he tried not to think about.   
  
_ A place for my head   
  
_ It was going to be a long day, not that it hadn`t been already.   
  
  
"It looks like Goten is taking things pretty hard," Dende commented, glancing over his shoulder at the small figure clad in orange and dark blue in one of the palace`s two main towers. "I know," Videl replied drearily. "Hasn`t been the same for any of us since this whole mess started," she added. "You miss him, don`t you?" Dende asked without even having to mention the name of who he was talking about. "Yeah," Videl replied with a shrug. "I always knew he`d die fighting something so powerful it`d threaten the universe, but I just can`t think of him as having actually died at all... It`s like he`s gone on a vacation and hasn`t come back yet," Videl stated.   
  
"Given how the Dragonballs do things, you`re probably not _that_ off," Dende pointed out. "Then why wasn`t he revived earlier?" Videl asked. "He could have been hanging onto life until Vegeta performed his suicide attack on Buu?" Dende asked. "No, that was before we used the wish."   
  
"... Maybe he isn`t dead after all, but I can`t feel him on Earth or anywhere else in-system," Dende stated grimly. "It`s a start, I guess..."   
  
"Could ask Death if Gohan is alive or not," Dende suggested. "... Huh?" Videl asked. "Oh, Death and Goku are having a thumb war up in the second tower," Dende replied as plainly as if giving the weather. Videl stared at him. "That`s... Nice..."   
  
"Yep, Death never get`s a holiday, so the only thing he really takes joy in are the thumb wars he does with Life," Dende said with a shrug. "... Anyway," Videl muttered, trying to change to a subject that wasn`t mind numbing.   
  
_ Maybe someday I'll be just like you and  
Step on people like you do and run  
Away the people I thought I knew  
I remember back then who you were  
  
_ "You know... This is _really_ stupid," Jack commented, having calmed down and taken a seat on the floor leaned against the pillar beside Goten. "Shyaddap!" Death yelled over at the small, detached part of the boy`s soul. "Looks like I`m not the only one who can hear you," Goten mused. "... Shit," Jack grumbled, quietly standing up and running around to the other side of the pillar. Given that he was just six inches tall, and that he wasn`t trying very hard, it wasn`t exactly a quick sprint.   
  
"I win!" Goku shouted, pinning Death`s thumb for three seconds. Death growled and yanked his hand free a few seconds later. "Two outta three?" The short force of nature asked. "Nah, I don`t have time for that," Goku replied sheepishly. "Damn," Death grumbled. "Alright, I`ll give you another five minutes, but _no more_."   
  
"Deal!" Goku said with a grin. "See you again sometime," Death said, melding into Goku`s shadow and leaving the area for some other part of the world.   
  
Along the way, one of the men in Upa`s village died of a heart attack. Just a minor side effect really, Death had a way of being there at the worst time it could possibly happen. Then again, Death also happened to be a massively spiteful bastard, something you could probably attribute to his bad luck at games of chance.   
  
"You know... I keep expecting to wake up in a mental institution, screaming about dancing pixies and violent clowns in pink tutus," Zangya commented. "I just keep expecting to wake up and realize this has all been the longest nightmare in history," Piccolo replied. "That too," Zangya said with a shrug. "Since I`ve got five minutes, I`m gonna make use of it," Goku said, rubbing his palms together.   
  
"Hey Goten, think you can out-eat me?" Goku asked with a grin so childish that only his six year old son could match it. "... You`re shitting me," Jack muttered in disbelief. "**_YES!!!_**" Goten shouted, practically bounding off of the ledge and diving towards the stairs, with Goku no less than a few steps behind.   
  
"... And so, the insanity continues," Zangya said to herself. "And this surprises you _how_?" Piccolo asked. "It doesn`t," Zangya answered with a smirk. "Sure it doesn`t, just keep telling yourself that," Piccolo stated, idly walking down the stairs after Goku and Goten, if only because he was morbidly curious to see how badly Mister Popo`s right eyebrow would be twitching by the time they finally finished eating, assuming they could do such a thing in just five minutes.   
  
Even accounting for the Saiyan factor, Goku and his children ate impossibly too much. Most Saiyans would stop eating at around twenty pounds of food, Goku, Gohan and Goten all ate around twice that. Piccolo found it mildly amusing to see how much any of the three could cram down their gullets, if only because it made it easier to pick on them for a while.   
  
_ You used to be calm, used to be strong  
Used to be generous but you should've known  
That you'd wear out your welcome  
Now you see how quiet it is all alone  
  
"Always knew I`d die in an ironically heroic, utterly useless sort of way,"_ Hercule thought, walking that last mile utterly alone. He`d accepted it when people wanted the military to escort him, he didn`t mind that much, but that last mile and everything after that was something he had to do on his own. It wasn`t for pride either, it was for a little peace.   
  
You see, Hercule Satan - once known by the name Yuuichirou Kumada - wasn`t the fool some would make him out to be. He knew he had failings, he knew he had done stupid things in life, he knew he`d probably do more stupid things if he lived to see the next day. Hercule Satan was, basically, aware of the fact that he couldn`t touch any of the 'Super Crowd,' as he`d come to call them, essentially everyone with any martial arts training after ChiChi and Master Roshi could probably kill him in a matter of one or two hits.   
  
That didn`t matter though, because earlier today, something in Hercule had been stirred that likely didn`t exist prior to the day he`d been all but destroyed by the Demon King, Dabura. He`d heard a speech about hope from an impossibly young alien who was acting as the Earth`s current divine overlord, and it had gotten something to snap in him.   
  
Hercule had realized the people still thought he was the greatest hero of all time, even if virtually everyone had figured out the truth behind the Cell Games to some extent or another. Heroes gave people hope, and right now, the Earth needed a whole _lot_ of hope.   
  
Hercule felt he was the man to give them that hope.   
  
In truth, he was more correct than anyone could guess, a far cry from the uncoordinated youth who`d first met Videl`s mother back at the Shinto Shrine some four-to-five hundred years ago...   
  
Tightening his grip on the small backpack he`d gotten ready, Hercule steeled himself for what was going to happen.   
  
_ I'm so sick of the tension, sick of the hunger  
Sick of you acting like I owe you this   
  
_ Normal fathers and normal sons generally bonded through games and sports, such as baseball or basketball. Normal fathers and normal sons generally kept their hair in order since it didn`t take things like chainsaws and pitchforks to brush and style them, and normal fathers and normal sons usually had a habit of wearing things other than 365 sets of douji-styled outfits.   
  
Son Goku and Son Goten, obviously, were not a normal father and son pair.   
  
They bonded through less conventional means.   
  
Like seeing who could eat the most the quickest. It actually made sense too, the saying goes that you can get to a man`s heart through his stomach but it was actually true for Saiyans. Another thing was that both father and son, despite the fact that the son happened to have a six inch tall imp that called itself Jack attached to his soul, were remarkably alike. They looked alike, they acted alike and they dressed alike, with few changes here and there.   
  
What was the most mind boggling here, at least to those who knew either combatant in this jousting match of the stomachs, was that Goten was actually winning. A six year old was successfully out-eating someone who easily caused resturaunt owner to keel over and have heart attacks at the mere sight of him.   
  
Obviously, more than one jaw had to be pried off of the floor.   
  
"Goku!" A slightly groggy, utterly annoyed voice rang through the ears of the small crowd, which consisted of Krillin, Trunks, Bulma, Zangya and a surprisingly unphased Piccolo, heralding the arrival of an absolutely disgruntled looking Uranai Baba, who happened to be sporting a fairly large lump raised up on the back of her scalp, tilting her witch`s hat forward a bit from it`s usual resting place.   
  
"Ready to go or what?!" She demanded hoarsely. "Still upset about Master Roshi thwacking ya, huh?" Goku asked, pausing from the process of biting out another fist sized chunk from the drumstick he was holding. Goten had yet to stop eating, but finally did once he noticed that Goku had done so.   
  
Goten even had the manners to wipe his mouth too, though he did it in the Gokuesque manner of tugging his shirt collar up and wiping his mouth on the inside.   
  
"Good, come on now, I don`t have all day," Baba complained, floating out of the room on her crystal ball and grumbling something about cursing her younger brother with even worse luck with women than before.   
  
Goku idly stood up and wiped his mouth, the same way Goten had done, and then rounded the table, followed by his sole surviving son before gently pushing past every in the doorframe, followed by them a few moments later.   
  
_ Find another place to feed your greed  
While I find a place to rest  
  
_ "Time to go," Baba said as the crowd of the Look Out`s current population gathered up in a circle, followed lastly by a dazed, upset ChiChi. She`d yet to finish calming down from earlier, it wasn`t easy to accept that one son was dead, her husband was about to leave for Heaven again and her other son was clinically insane. The Ox King was still making good on his word to Hercule, keeping one eye on Videl every now and then but mainly focusing on his own daughter instead.   
  
Videl herself seemed a bit shaken, not as bad as ChiChi though. The others in the crowd seemed either neutral or a little well off, with Piccolo and Zangya leading the pack as far as calmness went.   
  
"I still don`t see why you can`t stay," ChiChi muttered, half-leaned against Goku on trembling legs. "It`d be unfair to others if I got preferential treatment," Goku said with a shrug, arms wrapped gingerly around his wife. "Besides, we`ll meet again... Probably soon, but I hope not," he added, attempting comfort and failing utterly. "Big lug," ChiChi said hoarsely while drawing away. "And you know you love me because of it," Goku said with that utterly infectious grin of his. "To the day I die and then some," ChiChi replied with a half-hearted smile. It was all very surreal to her, at least she was getting to say good-bye and being able to mean it with some finality this time, a luxury that hadn`t been afforded to her when Goku had gone to the battlefield against Cell.   
  
"I know," Goku said with a nod. "Yanno, normally I`d probably pop a joke about that but..." Krillin trailed off. "Yeah, we`d all have to kill you."   
"That`s not really what I was getting at, Goku," the former monk grumbled out, almost having to fight the urge to throw a Kienzan when Goku knowingly mocked him and scruffed his hair. "Hey! Cut that out!" Krillin yelped, having to struggle to hold his balance while at the same time holding a cackling Marron. "Or else what, hm?" Goku asked. "Or else I`ll have to throw a diaper at you!" Krillin yelled, feeling as though his brain was being thrown around. "Take care, monk-ey boy," Goku said, removing his hand from his best friend`s hair and extending it downward a bit.   
  
"You too, ya big spikey headed weirdo," Krillin replied with a smirking handshake at the inside joke. The two broke apart a few seconds later, and Goku moved on, saying good-byes to everyone on a one-on-one basis before finally arriving at the last of the group, starting with Zangya.   
  
"I didn`t know you that well, but it was nice to meet you," Goku said, offering his hand up. Zangya shook it with a nod. "You too, you definately live up to the stories they tell about you," she stated. Goku moved onto Piccolo, who met him only with an aged smirk that could only come from having effectively lived the disembodied lives of a True Warrior-type Namek, Earth`s previous Demon King, and the Earth`s former Kami in addition to your own. "Tell him I said good-bye," Piccolo finally said after a few seconds. "I will, want me to make good on that promise?" Goku asked.   
  
"Five times, a smack for his son, his wife, me, Gohan and the she-bitch," Piccolo replied, motioning towards Zangya with his head at the last name. The short woman only glared at him, but did nothing to spoil the moment of comradery.   
  
Not to say she wasn`t planning on making him suffer for the comment, but still.   
  
After that came Dende. "Just tell him I said hello. It was good to see you again, Goku," Dende said. "Yeah, pretty good to see you`re handling the job adjustment pretty well," Goku replied, moving on to Trunks. "Good to meet you," he said. Trunks only nodded, he didn`t really understand the point of telling Goku good-bye when the guy had a reputation for coming back from the dead as it was.   
  
"Okay... Videl, right?"   
  
"Don`t see who else I`d be," Videl replied sardonically. "Sorry," Goku mumbled with a sideways glance. "Anything you want me to tell Gohan?" Goku asked. "I don`t think he`s dead, but if he is, tell him to get back here soon."   
  
"Anything else?" Goku asked knowingly. Videl grimaced. "I see where he get`s his ability to read people from," she commented sourly. "I`ll take that as a yes. Spill it," Goku ordered. Videl leaned forward and grabbed the Saiyan by the front length of his hair, tugging him down to where she could speak to him at eye level and then leaning around to get a nice vantage point of his ear.   
  
"Tell him I love him," she ordered in a whisper. "He already knows," Goku replied with a similar tone, leaning up straight and grinning at the shocked look on her face as a result of what he`d said. "Long story, I`ll let him or Dende explain it to you sometime," Goku explained before turning to the last person he`d ever expected to even say hello to, let alone good-bye.   
  
Goten held the expression of a rugged old man who`d seen too much death already, yet he was only six.   
  
"Goten?" Goku asked, reaching out and balling his hand into a fist after crouching down. "Good-bye," Goten said in a whimper, smacking his own fist into that of his father. It wasn`t quite the same as a hug, but shared between people as alike as they were, it was virtually the same. "Take care of your mother for me, alright?"   
  
"I will."   
  
"I`ll make sure to tell Gohan you said hello, alright? He`ll be bakc in a few months," Goku pointed out. "I know," Goten replied with a nod. "But that doesn`t mean it`ll stop hurting," he added with a growl. "I know, and it probably won`t for a long time. But it will," Goku replied. "Not soon enough," Goten snorted before lunging forward and wrapping most of his body around his father`s chest. Goku stood up straight and returned the gesture, holding his youngest son for one of the few times in either of their lives.   
  
"I know you can beat Buu, Goten. Just learn Fusion, then send him my way and I`ll make sure he learns why you don`t mess with us Earthlings," Goku assured. Goten only nodded before allowing himself to be set down.   
  
A few key seconds passed.   
  
"Are you finished now?" Baba questioned. She was annoyed but in the past minutes, she`d softened up a bit. "Yeah, let`s go."   
  
_ Find another place to feed your greed  
While I find a place to rest   
  
_ "Good-bye everyone, I`ll see you again after you all die!" Goku called out as he and Baba lifted up off of the ground and into the air, vanishing from sight after ascending a few dozen feet up.   
  
"I really hope that wasn`t a bad omen," Krillin said to himself while wiping his eyes.   
  
_ You try to take the best of me  
Go away, go  
You try to take the best of me  
Go away, go  
  
_ "My how the mighty fall," Jack commented amusedly from his vantage point on Bulma`s shoe.   
  
Goten responded with the only way he knew how that wouldn`t attract attention.   
  
_ "If the mighty fall, so will you,"_ he pointed out.   
  
_ I want to be in another place  
I hate when you say you don't understand  
You'll see it's not meant to be  
I want to be in the energy, not with the enemy   
A place for my head  
Shut up   
  
_ Jack didn`t say another word.   
  


_ End Part Eighteen  
  


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_

**Author`s Note:** Oh yeah, anyone catch the blaringly obvious Yu Yu Hakusho tribute last part?  
  
Anyway, it looks like things are really about to heat up as Goten and Trunks get ready to begin their training for Fusion. Will they succeed in time? Or will Majin Buu cut them both down before they ever get through the first steps?  
  
**cobra:** Glad ya still like it!  
  
**Professor Authordude:** Why yes, yes he did! Updates come once ever two-to-three days, so no need to demand an ASAP update yanno :P  
  
**CysticLOL17:** This long enough to make up for Crawling in the Dark`s relative shortness? As for Gohan finding his way out, he`d have likely passed out from exhaustion and froze to death after a while, so Setsuna`s appearance was pretty well timed(pardon the pun) for all intents and purposes. And yeah, the fanart posters would be great... Too bad nobody`s bothered offering to do any x_e;  
  
And on a parting note, I forgot to mention that in addition to using Mount Doom as a semi-model for Or-Helkh, I also tend to use Tolkien/Tolkien-inspired languages for aliens. The Aisu use Quenya, the Saiyans use Drowish(couldn`t find an Elfish translator at the time), and Babidee, Damion and others use a combination of Silmarillion, Sindarin and Teleri. Added a nice touch to use something other than Japanese as an alien language, yanno?  
  
That`s all for now, Sh33p out. See ya! 


	20. Shallow Be Thy Game

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations  
**_ Shallow Be Thy Game_  
  
  
  


"What now?" Videl asked, standing on the edge of the Look Out and gazing out at the world below. "Now we wait, and now we hope," Dende replied, leaning lightly onto his staff. "I`ve never been one for waiting, you know," Videl replied. "Neither have I, and neither has anyone else up here except Mister Popo and Piccolo. Especially not Bulma but I think Vegeta`s death kind of broke her lack of patience for one reason or another," Dende stated somberly. "I`m gonna miss that spikey headed son of a bitch," Videl mumbled. "We all are. Even if he was a... What`s the word?" Dende asked. "Ass wipe?" Videl answered. "No, worse," Dende said. "Baboon faced shit head?" Videl asked again. "Not that bad," Dende answered. "Just a plain bastard then?"   
  
"Yeah, that. I need to learn more Earth insults, I`m still stuck with cussing in Namekian most of the time," Dende stated. "Look at it this way, least you can get away with insulting everyone and not having them know it so long as you say it in a nice tone," Videl pointed out. "... True, but still," Dende conceded. "How do you think Gohan is doing?" Videl asked. "Not sure, knowing he and Goku though, he`s likely training his brains out. Something about Gohan tells me he`s never going to be able to knowingly relax," Dende explained. "Why?"   
  
"He`s seen everyone but you, Goten, Bulma, Zangya, his mother and grandfather, Marron, Roshi and a few others die at least once - before he was at the age of twelve," Dende answered. "... Yeah, that`d do it," Videl said with a shrug. "How did he see Trunks die though? He was only a baby..."   
  
"Remember the future version of Trunks?" Dende asked. "_Oh_, yeah. He died?" Videl asked. "Yeah, Cell put a blast right through his chest and out his back like it was nothing. The Dragonballs brought him back though, so I suppose it all turned out well in the end," Dende answered. "Suppose so. Do you think what Goku said is true?"   
  
"Hm?" Dende sounded. "That Gohan already knows that I love him," Videl answered with a shred of hesitation. It only came because she wasn`t exactly the girly type who spoke of love every five minutes, but then came the realization that she was talking to someone who probably knew anyway simply because of what he was. "Oh... Yeah, I think it is," Dende replied. "How so? He isn`t _that_ good at reading me, is he?" Videl asked.   
  
"Not exactly, but I can`t tell you the whole story."   
  
"Why?"   
  
"Old law of the universe, let`s just say Gohan took a trip when he was twelve and ended up learning a lot of things he shouldn`t have before he came back," Dende explained. "That 'walkabout' thing?" Videl asked. "Yeah. He ended up learning far more than he intended to, he actually knew Goten`s name before he was born. Knew most of Goten`s future techniques too, and his abilities and powers."   
  
"How?"   
  
"Can`t tell you."   
  
"Damn," Videl grumbled. "He even told me some things I don`t think I can speak of for fear of jeopardizing the stability of the timeline," Dende explained. "So he went through time or something?" Videl asked skeptically. "I neither confirm, nor deny that he did," Dende stated cryptically, glancing back down off of the edge. "Buu`s just finished adding another third of the world`s population to his tally," Dende said with a wince.   
  
"That brings it up to?"   
  
"Two thirds. Roughly two and a half billion people," Dende stated with sobering finality. "... I hope the Dragonballs are as power as you say..."   
  
"The largest revival my set`s ever carried out was the four or five million people Cell killed. Not sure if my set`s up for reviving the entire population though," Dende exclaimed. "Well... You`re God, aren`t you?" Videl asked. "You can do anything you set your mind to," she assured. "... I hope," Dende corrected.   
  
_ I was not created  
In the likeness of a fraud   
  
"Almost time,"_ Hercule thought, tightening his grip on the strap of the backpack and leaning against the side of Buu`s house. It wasn`t the best plan in the world, but it was all he could work with on short notice. Besides, at least he`d probably get a decent laugh out of things if he lived, right? "Come on Buu," he mumbled to himself, glancing from side to side and nervously tapping his foot.   
  
"But I`m already here," Buu stated. Hercule almost felt the urge to pass out and died where he stood.   
  
Instead, he tilted his head back until he found himself staring into the squinted shut in a perpetual smiley faced expression. "Who are you?" Buu asked. "I`m Hercule Satan, former champion of the Tenkaichi Budoukai!" Hercule announced proudly, his `fro tilting sideways with the wind. "Oh... Okay. I`m Buu," Buu announced. "Why are you here?" It asked, landing with an Earth shaking thud next to Hercule. "Came to see what all the fuss was about," Hercule lied.   
  
_ "And now comes the part I know I`m gonna regret in the morning,"_ Hercule thought to himself in disdain.   
  
_ Your hell is something scary  
I prefer a loving god   
  
_ "I`m also here to offer you a hand in friendship," Hercule lied again, plastering on the best smile he could manage. "Friendship? What`s that?" Buu asked curiously. Hercule blinked a few times. _"This may take longer than I thought..."_   
  
_ We are not the center  
Of this funny universe  
And what is worse  
I do not serve  
In fear of such a curse   
  
_ Goku touched down softly atop the roof of the outer gate to Enma`s palace. To say the least, the sight before him wasn`t exactly encouraging. Souls filled his vision in either direction, in front or behind him, as far as he could see. Most were disembodied, or the bodies were starting to fade out as they often did for those who either hadn`t been warriors of some kind or hadn`t done something that`d effected more than a hundred people. He could clearly see two figures he recognized out in the distance, namely Bulma`s parents, among a few dozen others he could vaguely remember from somewhere, though most tended to fade into the sugarpuff-like fireballs of energy after a few seconds.   
  
"It`s getting rather bad down there," Baba commented. "Yeah. Thanks for the time though, Baba, I owe ya one," Goku replied. "Don`t mention it," Baba shrugged, floating away a few seconds later.   
  
_ "Was my fight with Vegeta **really** worth all this?"_ Goku wondered to himself, hopping down from the top of the gate and jogging ahead. "Hey, wait!" One of the office ogres called out. "It`s me, Goku! I`m already signed in!" The Saiyan warrior called out over his shoulder, giving a back handed wave while darting past the line, taking a jump over it and floating the rest of the way from some seven feet off of the ground.   
  
** "TWO AND A HALF BILLION PEOPLE?! WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON DOWN THERE?!"   
  
**_ "Nice to know some things never change,"_ Goku thought bemusedly while glancing over the line as he passed it by, looking for his oldest son. "We don`t know sir!"   
  
** "WELL, FIND OUT NOW!"   
  
** "Hey! Enma!" Goku called out, skidding to a halt in the air in front of King Enma`s desk and then floating up to stand atop it. **"GOKU! HOW ARE YOU?"** Enma asked, head tilted to the side. **"SHOULDN`T YOU STILL HAVE TIME LEFT?"** He questioned again. "Long story, but did a guy named Son Gohan come through here just before all these people started showing up? A little taller than me, bit skinnier, slightly better kept hairstyle? He`s my son, so..."   
  
** "NOPE, AND I THINK I`D RECOGNIZE ANY SON OF YOUR`S,"** Enma answered truthfully. "Wow, Videl was right... Thanks Enma! Gotta go!" Goku called out, hopping off of the desk with a grin the size of the sun, landing on the plush red rug that stood at twice the width and length of most stately mansions. Darting down a hallway to the air field listed as 'Higher Plane Airport,' Goku glanced from side to side and took off, trying to feel for his son`s ki signature.   
  
_ "That`s really weird though... Could Videl feel him or was it that she was just in denial and turned out to be right? Maybe it`s that soul mate thing he was talking about... Nah, that couldn`t be it. I **know** I`d be able to tell if anything happened to ChiChi or not, I think Bulma could tell if something happened to Vegeta. Maybe she just had a lucky guess or something,"_ Goku thought to himself, drifting up into the reddish cloud layer above the plane of existence known as Midway Point, the part of existence that connected _everything_ from the Hells to the Heavens to the mortal plane to Hyperspace and everything in between, and there was a **_lot_** in between.   
  
"Let`s see now... Been a while since I tried teleporting to Gohan`s ki so..." Goku focused, trying to pin point his son`s energy in vain. Rising out of the pink clouds that hovered above the reddish layer, Goku reached out an arm and swung himself up onto the right wing of one of the Higher Planes, which were really just fancily titled, enchanted 737s, 747s and 757s bought from and maintained by Capsule Corporation, connected from the mortal realm to Midway Point by Han Chaozu`s thriving business venture, the Underworld Service.   
  
"Hmm," Goku sounded, ignoring the fact that a fellow who bore an uncanny resemblance to William Shatner was screaming about a karate fighter on the wing, which he really couldn`t hear at all because of the distance and the fact they were seperated by a few layers of glass, plastic, insulation and metal. _"Gohan`s ki should be about... 15% similar to mine, 15% similar to ChiChi and 70% different... No, that doesn`t work... Maybe I should just look for the angriest k-no. I`d just end up in Hell with Vegeta or something..."   
  
_ Despite the fact that the day Goku became a scientist was the day that the rest of Hell froze over and the part that hadn`t became hotter than the surface of the sun, the so-called Legendary had indeed become an expert at the arts of ki detection, wracking up the kind of knowledge that gods took thousands of years to learn in a matter of months in his spare time, simply because it had been a welcome distraction from the training of those past six years.   
  
This was how he knew how to mentally lock onto the signatures of the ki matrixes of the universe. A ki matrix is basically a strange way to lock onto someone`s energy signature, it allowed you to view the energy signatures of that person`s entire family, living and dead, and then trace along the lines until you narrowed it down to who you were looking for, which was generally something that happened when you found a ki signature that you actually recognized.   
  
It was a complex, difficult technique, but Goku had it figured out enough that he could manage to do it, it was actually a technique that could work in conjunction with Shunkan Idou, or Instant Transmission, Instantaneous Movement, whatever you called it. How it existed, he didn`t know, why was also something he had no knowledge of. Goku just chalked it up as one of those mysteries of the universe that would either kill him(again) or drive him insane if he found out. After a few minutes of thrifting through his own family line, zooming from the last known Legendary Super Saiyan who`d achieved his power while alive over to his wife`s ki line, Goku focused on ChiChi then slid down a notch, locking onto Gohan`s ki signature and keeping it in mind.   
  
"Found you," he said to himself, suddenly vanishing right off of the wing of the plane and causing the lookalike of William Shatner to faint.   
  
_ Shallow be thy game  
2000 years look in the mirror  
You played the game of shame  
Until your people live in fear  
  
_ "So _that`s_ what a friend is?" Buu asked. "Yeah, pretty much," Hercule answered. "Then... Where`s my gift?!" Buu demanded eagerly. "I was waiting for you to say that," Hercule replied, swiftly setting the backpack down and unzipping it, careful to keep the other 'presents' hidden by shadow. Of course most people didn`t exactly consider hand grenades, pocket thermo-nukes, poison and other nifty little surprises to be presents, but these were special circumstances after all.   
  
"Here, this is a Gameboy," Hercule stated, handing the smallish gaming device off to Buu, who curiously stared at it and then lightly gnawed on it. "No Buu, you`re supposed to turn it on and then play it, like this," Hercule informed, turning the Gameboy on and then pressing a few buttons, then handing it back to Buu. "Ohhh... Hmm..."   
  
_ "Buy it you piggy bastard, **BUY IT!**"_ Hercule thought, stepping back over to his backpack and calmly lifting it back up to remove what a small cylinder in the size and shape of a twelve ounce soda can. "This is hard..." Buu grumbled, and Hercule almost felt his spine ice over. "Just a minute Buu, let me see if I can find anything you`d like more... Mario maybe?"   
  
"What`s a Mario?"   
  
"**_THIS!!!_**" Hercule shouted, clamping his thumb down on the detonation trigger and listening to the explosion as all of the C-4 he`d packed into the Gameboy went off. How he`d crammed _that much_ into such a small space without interfering with how the Gameboy worked was anyone`s guess.   
  
Several seconds passed and Hercule greedily watched on, hoping that he`d done the impossible and killed Buu by catching it off gaurd.   
  
And then he heard the infantile cackling and watched as the obese demon rolled out of the cloud of dust and smoke, laughing it`s chubby head off in amusement. "That was fun!" Buu stated enthusiastically, causing Hercule`s stomach to backflip a few times. _"Time for Plan B..."_ Satan thought, casually tossing the detonator aside and reaching into the bag again, removing a sizable box afterward. "I also brought you some human-made chocolate! Yanno, since humans can make chocolate instead of just being turned into it and all," Hercule stated sheepishly, reminding himself of just exactly what Buu had done.   
  
_ "Suck it down, you fat son of a bitch... All laced with a different kind of poison, just for you!"_ Hercule thought, though he said something entirely different. "Here, try one!" He offered, despite of what he was thinking. That was another thing Satan had mastered through the years, he was probably one of the finest actors alive when he actually tried. "Hmm... How about this one?" Buu asked, pointing out a random chocolate. "Actually... Let me help," Hercule offered, handing Buu the box and then climbing up the back of the demon`s cape, grabbing either side of it`s mouth and then forcibly yanking it wide open.   
  
"Oh! Fangou!" Buu said, or tried to, before swiftly dumping the entire box - literally - down into it`s mouth. Hercule let go and rolled off, quietly darting around the overweight killing machine made of chewed bubble gum and grabbing the backpack once more, shovelling all of the spare TNT he`d jammed in back into the main holding point of the pack.   
  
"This is good! Much more flavor than humans," Buu agreed. "Well, glad you like it," Hercule lied, waiting...   
  
_ "Five..."   
  
_ ... And waiting.   
  
_ "Four..."   
  
_ Waiting some more...   
  
_ "Three..."   
  
_ Still waiting...   
  
_ "Two..."   
  
_ Almost there...   
  
_ "One... Die, die, you pudgy shit!"   
  
_ ... And nothing happened.   
  
Both of them just stood there smiling like absolute idiots.   
  
_ "... Plan C!"_ Hercule thought, thumbing around in the main pouch for that pocket thermonuclear bomb he`d been given by the armed forces just in case.   
  
_ A rival to the way you see  
The bible let him be  
I'm a threat to your survival  
And your control company  
  
_ "_Fu_..."   
  
"Ever get that vague feeling that nothing you do, no matter how correct at the time, means jack squat in the grand scheme of things?" Krillin asked, drawing another card off of the deck.   
  
"... **_Sion_**..."   
  
"Like Mafuba-ing Piccolo Daimou and then realizing you just died for nothing?" Roshi asked.   
  
"... **_HA!!!_**"   
  
"Something like that. Sometimes it feels like the aliens and the Saiyans are the only ones who can do _anything_ right," Krillin muttered.   
  
"_Try it again_!" "_Tighten your stance, Goten_!"   
  
"What else is new?" Yamcha asked. "It seems like every time some new evil comes along, it`s up to them and one of them either hits a new level of something or just barely squeaks by," he added. "Is that jealousy, Yamcha?" Bulma asked with a snicker.   
  
"_Fu_..."   
  
"Hardly. I rather like being able to take a vacation from all the fighting that breaks out every few years and lumping it on someone else. Just wish I could actually help out sometimes though, yanno?" He asked.   
  
"... **_Sion_**..."   
  
"Yeah. Wasn`t it Tien who went all whacked out after the last Budoukai talking about trying to attain some transformation or other?"   
  
"... **_HA!!!_**"   
  
"_You`re getting better, just keep at it_!" "_And Trunks, you`re supposed to use your INDEX fingers, not the middle ones_!"   
  
"Actually, I think it was he and Chaozu both, don`t really remember," Yamcha answered. "Transformation?" ChiChi asked. "Deal, by the way," she ordered.   
  
"_Fu_..."   
  
"Yeah, Tien came up with some sort of idea that every race in the universe has some kind of transformation to become stronger. Look at uh... Saiyans, Frieza`s people, Cell, Nameks..." Krillin pointed out. "Nameks?" Bulma asked. "Namekian Fusion, it`s a transformation... Sort of, long story," Krillin explained. "Going by that logic though, he actually has something of a point... Hah!"   
  
"... _**Sion**_..."   
  
"True, except that humans aren`t naturally warriors," Roshi countered. "Nameks are half warriors, Cell and his kind are made out of warriors, don`t know jack about Frieza`s people and the Saiyans were either all warriors or close enough to it to alter their evolution," he added. "Good point," Yamcha replied.   
  
"**_EEP!_**" "**_GOTEN, YOU DUMB ASS, DON`T SLIP!!!_**"   
  
"_Both of you, watch the language_!" "_One more time, take it from the top_!"   
  
"Sound`s like fun in there," Krillin muttered. Marron simply let out a childish cackle and returned to playing with Juu, who was gritting her teeth and letting off a glare towards Bulma and ChiChi, who simply replied in unison:   
  
"Blame Vegeta."   
  
"Remind me to kill him if he comes back to life, I don`t want Marron becoming a foul mouth," she ordered. "Assuming we don`t first," ChiChi said. "You figured out how to do that spell yet?" Bulma asked. "The one to materialize needles, frying pans and/or scissors that can actually cut a Saiyan`s hair without shattering?" ChiChi replied. "Yeah, that one."   
  
"Not yet, but I`m working on it."   
  
"_Fu_..."   
  
"Seriously though, do you think they`ve found that transformation they were so crazy about figured out?" Yamcha asked. "If they did, more power to `em. Doubt it though, remember how Lunch went pacifist after Chaozu worked her through reconciliation therapy with her evil side," Krillin pointed out. "Doubt that`s exactly stopped him from training though... Tien always was the hardest among us," Yamcha replied. "Same, but I doubt he`s driven himself insane trying to find that transformation. Doubt it even exists."   
  
"... **_Sion_**..."   
  
"Probably not. Nice to think about though, eh?" Yamcha asked. "Yeah... Maybe Goten is a Super Human?" Krillin asked. "What do you mean?"   
  
"You saw the way his hair was changed and his aura was different earlier... His energy didn`t even feel right."   
  
"... **_HA!!!_**"   
  
"No. That wasn`t any transformation you can associate with a human being or a Saiyan... That was just... I don`t even want to think about it," ChiChi interrupted. "Agreed," Bulma, Roshi and Yamcha all said.   
  
"_Fu_..."   
  
"If they don`t stop doing that for a little while, my brain`s going to explode."   
  
"... **_Sion_**..."   
  
"You and me both."   
  
"... **_HA!!!_**"   
  
_ You'll never burn me  
You'll never burn me  
I will be your heretic  
You can't contain me  
I am the power free  
Truth belongs to everybody   
  
_ Gohan tensed up and allowed himself to simply breathe, lowering the Zet Sword down into a waiting position and feeling his energy return to normal, even though he`d just expended virtually everything he had over the course of the past twenty minutes since arriving from Hell with Setsuna, who had promptly departed without so much as a good-bye, just sauntering over to a tree, turning around with a wave towards Kibito and Shin, and then vanishing into thin air.   
  
Gohan had only allowed himself to be healed to the extent that his injuries were all gone, entirely. Not one scar marred him that hadn`t already been there when he got to Hell, a welcome effect of Kibito`s healing abilities. The sword itself seemed to do the rest, though Gohan was increasingly aware of something vaguely attached to it. How it had become so light to him over the course of the past hours, he didn`t know. How he seemed so bound to it, he didn`t know that either.   
  
All Gohan knew was that he intended to use the Zet Sword to kill Majin Buu.   
  
Twirling the weapon into a ready position again, Gohan closed his eyes and lashed out, sidestepping forward in the process and then carrying himself into a spin, weilding the weapon with one hand and swinging it blindly through the air like in some sort of dance.   
  
"G-**_EEP!!!_**." Was all he heard before opening his eyes and halting himself in mid-movement, just in time to watch a half dozen perfectly sliced hairs flitter to the grass below. "What the hell kind of welcome is that?!" Goku asked, practically having a heart attack. Gohan sheepishly laughed.   
  
"Well, maybe that`ll teach you not to teleport in on people anymore," he said with a smirk. "That`s not very nice," Goku replied, picking himself up shakily and dusting himself off. "And uh, by the way, why are you dressed like that?" Goku asked, pointing out the fact that Gohan was wearing clothing similar to Shin and Kibito`s, making him look like some sort of mythical knight. "Apparently, Kibito didn`t like my gi," Gohan sourly replied. "Magics, I`m guessing?" Goku asked. "How`d you know?"   
  
"You don`t spend a combined total of six and a half years living around gods and not learn a bit about what they can do," Goku pointed out. "... Yeah, that seems about right," Goku admitted. "Figured as much. What`s with the sword?" Goku asked. "Long story, probably just as long as that burst of power I felt from you a while ago," Gohan replied, propping the sword up broadside across his shoulder. Only then did Goku actually notice it had an ice blue tinge like paint had been spilled on it earlier.   
  
"Well... Let`s talk about it over food, eh? I`m starved!"   
  
Gohan`s stomach roared in response, shaking the ground for a few moments. "... Yeah, good idea. Shin and Kibito`ll probably have coronaries that you came here uninvited," Gohan pointed out. "Yes, and?" Goku asked. "That`s what I thought," Gohan replied with a smirk.   
  
_ To anyone who's listenin'  
You're not born into sin  
The guilt they try and give you  
Puke it in the nearest bin  
  
"Plan F did **NOT INVOLVE THIS!!!**"_ Hercule thought annoyedly, turning the stove off and glaring at the pot of macaroni he`d tricked Buu into believing was a gourmet delicacy. When Hercule came here today, he hadn`t exactly expected to end up quasi-friends with a morbidly obese demon that turned people into chocolate and blew up cities for cheap thrills.   
  
Hercule had expected to die with glory and heroism, damnit! This was some sick little game on the part of fate alright, Hercule wasn`t exactly thrilled that at this rate, he`d be more likely to be remembered as Buu`s cowardly man-bitch than as a former Tenkaichi champion. _"... Ah well,"_ Hercule thought, pausing from watching the macaroni boiling and unzipping the backpack once again. _"Least I`ll manage to kill the pudgy bastard anyway! Or give him the runs for a month!"_ Hercule thought, making sure to check the sticks of dynamite to make sure that they were the water/heat proofed variety.   
  
Thankfully for Hercule, Buu wasn`t home though. After playing hide-and-seek, tag and then a fun game of 'Eat the pocket 50 megaton thermonuclear bomb,' Buu had told Satan to cook up something for dinner and then taken off, intent on doing some more demolition. It was almost night by now, and Hercule felt he was fast running out of options, not that he had many to begin with but still.   
  
"Just need enough time to set this up," he mumbled to himself, placing the dynamite into the pot and waiting. He was guessing it would be another hour before Buu returned, an hour he had time to work with, to plan an escape and to rig up the remote detonator.   
  
The taps on his shoulder, followed by a canine whimper, disproved _that_ guess in a matter of seconds. "Hey..."   
  
Hercule turned around to be greeted by a fairly annoyed looking Buu holding a pathetic looking little puppy - Hercule didn`t recognize the dog`s breed. "Why isn`t it running away?" Buu asked, setting the animal down onto the floor. Hercule blinked a bit and then looked down at the dog`s front right paw. "Oh, it`s hurt. Front right paw, right there," he pointed out, leaning in for a closer look. "No wait... Look`s like it`s front right leg is broken," he corrected, standing up straight and casting a sideways glance away from the dog.   
  
That was one of the more unlikely things about Hercule. People screaming and dying, oddly enough, was something he could live with so long as it was sufficiently distanced from him. Animals on the other hand - dogs and birds in particular - were another story entirely. The dogs were easy to explain, he`d been a dog-person even in his youth, birds were just something he`d grown passingly fond of since his wife had kept so many prior to her death.   
  
"Well... What should I do?" Buu asked.   
  
"Can you heal it?" Hercule replied. Buu gave a nod. "Then heal it, maybe that`ll work," Satan suggested. He didn`t know it, but the way he was wording and toning his voice was probably one of the only things keeping him alive, if Buu had percieved someone trying to control it...   
  
Well, the results wouldn`t have been clean _or_ pleasant to say the least.   
  
Leaning down and glancing at the dog, Buu`s head-tail gradually pointed forward, aiming at the animal before letting off a bright blue bolt of light. The pup yelped briefly and then paused, standing up straight and regarding it`s healed leg. Satan and the demon waited for several seconds, and then Buu stared in disbelief when the puppy barked several times and then started wagging it`s tail at an incredible rate.   
  
"Why isn`t it running away?" Buu asked in disappointment. "I think he likes you," Hercule replied in disbelief. "What`s that mean?" Buu asked, still staring curiously at the dog. "That means he probably wants to be your friend too," Hercule answered. _"What next?"_ He thought. "... Wow," Buu said to itself. "But what do we call it?" He asked.   
  
"I don`t know, any ideas?" Hercule responded, still not believing the situation. "Bee," Buu suggested, watching the pup`s response. "Alright, we`ll call him Bee," Hercule agreed. "What do we do with him though?" Buu asked. "Play with him... Not the games like you and I played but uh... Hm," Hercule glanced around. "Any sticks handy?" He asked.   
  
Buu glanced around and then shook it`s head. "Nope."   
  
"There are probably a few outside. Why don`t you take Bee out there and then go find a stick, then throw it for him? Not too far though," Hercule advised. Buu gave a nod, picked up the ecstatic little pup and then hovered out of the huge circular opening in it`s home`s second floor, touching down on the ground a few seconds later.   
  
As for Hercule?   
_  
"I really hate having a conscience..."_ He thought as he started plucking the dynamite out of the pot.   
  
_ Missionary madness  
Sweep up culture with a broom  
Trashing ancient ways  
Is par for the course  
It's fuckin' rude   
  
_ "Sounds pretty insane," Gohan mused while Goku finished describing the third level of Super Saiyan. "It is, but it isn`t that hard to maintain in the Afterlife. It`s in real life that it gets tough to pull off," Goku replied, still eating a sub that was some two feet long even after he`d eaten the other four or five feet of it. Made for a nice light dessert after he`d eaten all that food that Kibito had cooked up. It seemed cooking was something all forms of the Kaios had a knack for.   
  
"Sounds like you could`ve taken Buu out really," Gohan commented, holding the Zet Sword broadside over his shoulder as he had since Goku had first arrived on Kaioshin-kai. "If I`d been intent on coming back here all of five seconds into attacking him, sure," Goku replied sourly. "It should be the living who deal with him, it`s just not my place to defend the Earth anymore," he added. Gohan frowned. "Is it your place to destroy it then?" He asked.   
  
"I wasn`t thinking straight," Goku replied defensively. "Sure you weren`t. I`m guessing you can feel it too whenever Buu takes out a city? Like having a hair plucked from your eyebrows, except you can feel it for several seconds and then it just stops."   
  
"Yeah. I`m not proud of what happened Gohan, and I`m not saying that my fighting Vegeta despite what you and Shin said was a good thing. And I`m not even going to try defending the fact that I put a ki blast into your face to get you out of the way either," Goku replied soberly, pausing only to finish downing his food without even really chewing it. "And I`m not even going to bother attacking you for it, or anything else that`s happened today."   
  
"You sound changed," Goku observed in the way that only a parent could. "Gohan, look me in the eyes," he ordered quietly. His son only spared him a sideways glance into the eyes before looking ahead again. "That good enough?" Gohan asked. "No," Goku replied. "Tough," Gohan stated simply. "I guess ChiChi was right then," Goku sighed, rubbing his brow. "About what?"   
  
"When you looked at me I saw something bad in your eyes, Gohan. I see death in the eyes of my oldest son," Goku replied. "There`s a lot worse than death inside, Dad. Let`s leave it at that," Gohan replied. An uneasy silence settled over the two for several minutes during the walk away from Shin`s palace, being shadowed by an equally silent Shin and Kibito from afar.   
  
"If things have been so peaceful over the past few years, why do you keep fighting?" Goku asked. "I know you`ll never love fighting past the occasional spar..."   
  
"Because I don`t want the responsability lumped onto someone else - like Goten. Mom had him pegged to be the 'fighter,' you know. Hell, neither of you ever listened to what I want and she probably won`t _ever_ listen to what Goten wants," Gohan stated in a fairly deadened tone of voice. "But if the Earth`s been at peace over the years..."   
  
"Cell Junior."   
  
"... Good point," Goku replied. "Well... Is there any particular reason that sword looks like it has blood or something on it?" The older Son asked to try and change subjects. "Long story short: I went to Hell and killed a Demon Prince while you were busy stalling Majin Buu."   
  
"... **_EH?!_**"   
  
_ To think that you're above  
The laws of nature, what a joke  
Purple sashes feeding masses  
Smoke on which to choke  
  
_ "... _**AND NOW YOU`RE GONNA DIE!!!**_"   
  
Buu`s eyes widened.   
  
"_**HIII-YA!!!**_"   
  
Buu howled and fell back in surprise.   
  
"... And so it was that Ninja Minireshi beheaded his foes all with one swift kick," Hercule read as Buu cackled violently, rolling around with Bee and laughing hysterically. "That was funny!" Buu stated with a wheeze, bursting into laughter again. Hercule only blinked. "But it was supposed to be sad and dramatic..."   
  
"People dying is funny though!" Buu replied with a grin. "Ohhh... Hey, why do you kill people anyway?" Hercule asked, head tilted to the side somewhat. "Because it`s what they made me for," Buu replied after gaining some self control again and wiping something akin to sweat from it`s non-existent brow. "They?" Hercule asked. "Bibidee, my creator, and Babidee, his son," Buu explained with more articulation than you`d expect. Despite being a morbidly obese planet busting demon made of a combination of something like silly putty, bubble gum and cotton candy, and despite lacking any sort of identifiable brain, Buu was actually smarter than it looked and acted.   
  
"Well... Where are they now?" Hercule asked.   
  
"Dead," Buu answered with a cryptic, slightly disturbing little grin. "Then uh... Why listen to `em?" Hercule asked skeptically. He wasn`t sure how to word anything right at the moment, and it was a long shot but given the changes displayed earlier...   
  
Well, who knew?   
  
"Because it`s fun..."   
  
"There are other ways o` havin` fun ya know," Hercule said with a nod. Buu stared at him briefly. "Such as?"   
  
"Uh... Playin` with Bee, video games, outside games, _friendly_ competition, sports... Helping people?" Hercule suggested, thinking everything off the top of his afro-wearing head. Buu only stared in silence, eyes opened briefly but somewhat narrowed. It was the kind of stare that could make even the senselessly suicidal tremble in fear. Hercule on the other hand was simply resigned and calm, probably because he had the relative sense to know that Buu was too strong to actually torture him and would end up killing him on the first punch, likely by accident.   
  
"Do you want me to stop killing?" Buu asked in a deathly serious tone of voice.   
  
"Yes... Butit`suptoyousohehhehreally," Hercule answered uneasily, suddenly feeling the need to run around and hide.   
  
"Okay," Buu replied with a grin. "You`re my friend so I`ll stop since you asked me to," it explained with a few nods.   
  
Hercule all but passed out in shock.   
  
_ I might be a monkey  
When it comes to being holy  
Fundamental hatred  
Get down on your knees and   
  
_ "40! 41, no, wait, 42!" McAthry counted off as another unwitting survivor of the bloodiest day in humanity`s history went down in a hail of gunfire, his former employer-turned-partner in crime laughing all the while. "I`ve always wanted to do something like this!" The blonde man in the ponytail by the name of Orwell replied. "Oop, Just went to 47 for me!" He laughed as the car hit a hard series of bumps, mowing down an entire family and almost throwing McAthry from his perch.   
  
"Isn`t this a bit dangerous?" McAthry asked, righting his cap and keeping a firm grip on the safety bar to his left, which was above the exposed back seat of the speeder-like car. "Buu`s supposed to have some sort of house nearby, isn`t he?" The chubby former postal worker asked. "So?! We got a bazooka in this baby, we`ll be fine!" Orwell replied, swerving the car down another street and sandwhiching a woman and her husband lethally into another car, leaving an oversized bloodstain all over the side of the speeder.   
  
"Shame too, I just got a new paint job!" Orwell quipped, just as he and McAthry left city limits on a direct course for Majin Buu`s home.   
  
_ You'll never burn me  
You'll never burn me  
I will be your heretic  
You can't contain me  
I am the power free  
Truth belongs to everybody   
  
_ "... You know, I always wondered how he would become a hero," Dende mused. Videl quirked an eyebrow. "Who?" She asked curiously. "Your dad. He just managed to befriend Buu and get him to renounce killing... We may not even need Goten and Trunks to finish learning Fusion now," the young god explained. "... He talked Buu into changing his ways?" Videl asked in semi-disbelief. "Yeah. Pretty much," Dende replied.   
  
"Why am I not _that_ surprised?"   
  
"Because you`re in a psychological state of shock with all that`s happened today?"   
  
"Good answer."   
  
"Think we should tell the others or am I the only one who wants to see the insane, foaming-at-the-mouth looks that Zangya and Piccolo are probably going to have when we tell them that making Goten and Trunks learn Fusion was a waste and they never had to do the dance with each other to demonstrate it to them at all?" Dende asked. Videl only smirked.   
  
"When you put it like that..."   
  
_

End Part Nineteen  
  


* * *

  
  


_**Author`s Note:** *Gasp.* A fic that actually uses Hercule as a hero like he was in the series! *Shocked look of abstract horror.*  
  
You just wait till ya see the kinda stuff I have lined up for everyone`s favorite Hulk Hogan parody... *Villainously insane laugh.*  
  
**CysticLOL17:** Yeah, was wondering if anyone would pick up on the Akira thing. Think of it as the ultimate 'character judge of the gods.' I`ve used him like that in a few other stories too, but ah well... And yes, Jack has little man syndrome. Soon, you`ll know why.  
  
**Professor Authordude:** It happens :P Just don`t need to do it on my stories since I try to get them finished at a rate that fades the letters off my keyboard as is(no joke x_X). And maybe you`re right, maybe Goten **is** a necromancer...  
  
And maybe I`m just a sick bastard who delights in tormenting all of you! *Cue Dr Evil laugh.*  
  
But seriously, you`ll learn why sooner than you think, so just batten down and get ready :]  
  
That`s all for now folks, enjoy, leave a review and see ya next time!  
  
Sh33p out. 


	21. Long Way Down

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations  
**_ Long Way Down   
  
  
  
_

"... And then I basically took his head off," Gohan finished, resting most of his weight on the heavy mass of the Zet Sword, gauging his father`s reaction by the stunned look he wore. "Eee," was Goku`s only response. The older Son was a bit too stunned to really try and do anything but sit there and stare by the end of his first born`s description of events. Perched as he was on a large rock, Goku probably would have fallen over if he was standing. "After that, I just sort of... Came back here," Gohan said with a shrug, careful to avoid mentioning exactly who had given him a lift back to Kaioshin-kai. "That`s... Insane?"   
  
"Think that`s bad? Should`ve seen the battlefield in Hell, we`re talking... Miles wide, far as the eye can see in either direction, blasts going off all over the place, unconcious bodies flying everywhere, the works," Gohan explained. "Should`ve seen Vegeta too... You`d think someone would have the decency to regret winding up in Hell but him? He was the happiest I`ve ever seen him!" He exclaimed, causing Goku to crack a small grin. "That`s Vegeta for you... Who knows, maybe he`ll actually find peace down there and warrant being let into Heaven."   
  
"Eh?"   
  
"It`s happened before, apparently. Two other Saiyans were the last ones to pull it off... Forgot their names but my father knew them pretty well," Goku explained. "Was one of them named Toma, by any chance?" Gohan asked a bit suspiciously. "I think so, don`t remember the other`s name. Cel - or was it Cer? Something with Ce- in it," Goku answered. "Celipa," Gohan guessed. "That might be it, I`ll have to ask Bardock the next time I see him... That reminds me, what do you think of your other grand-dad?"   
  
"He`s a dick?"   
  
"Aside from that."   
  
"... Reminds me of a more bloodthirsty, battle scarred version of you," Gohan replied. "Yeah, Raditz say`s I take after him a lot," Goku said. "Raditz is in Heaven then?" Gohan asked. "Yeah, for some reason all of his old sins were marked as 'Forgiven' when he came back after his escape from Hell with Nappa and Bojack," Goku explained. "Heh... The wish worked then," Gohan mused. "You know, you have a dead cousin named after Bardock," Goku smirked. "Tell me about him some other time," Gohan ordered, raising the sword again. "I gotta get back to work and master this thing."   
  
"Perhaps a test of the sword`s strength is in order," Shin interrupted. "How long were you standing there?" Both Sons asked in unison. "Long enough," Shin answered cryptically. "... Right," Goku replied with a raised brow. "But do you agree?"   
  
"About?"   
  
"About a strength test of the sword," Shin answered patiently. "Oh... Sure," Gohan replied. "We`ll need something to cut though," Goku mused, standing up. "This should do, small but... Ah well," he shrugged, reaching down and grabbing the rock out of the ground and heaving it up over his head. "Think fast!" Goku shouted, not even bothering to give a warm-up before throwing the boulder at Gohan, who dove backwards and wound up with the sword.   
  
A flashing whistle of silver and the half-Saiyan stood in front of Goku and Shin, hunched forward slightly with the Zet Sword held to his side with one hand as if he`d just performed an attack with it. The boulder continued on for several dozen more feet and then split in half perfectly down the middle, both sections rolling along for a few seconds before flopping over and splitting in half again. And then the four remaining sections split again. And then again.   
  
"Nice," Goku commented impressively while Gohan tossed the sword up over his head and caught it in his opposite hand after several spins, lowering the weapon to his side afterward. "Got anything else?" He asked. "Hmm... Only big thing in sight is that nearby mountain but that`d be a bit _too_ big," Goku thought aloud. "I have an idea," Shin offered.   
  
"Goku, put your hands up above your head as if holding something large," Shin ordered. Goku did as told only to find a massive black cube suddenly resting in his hands, twice his own size in appearance but well over ten thousand times as heavy, _easily_. "Kechim alloy," Shin explained. "The hardest metal in the known universe."   
  
Goku only grit his teeth, struggling to hold the huge block above his head. "Not to mention the heaviest," he muttered annoyedly. Gohan only smirked in reply, raising the sword and setting himself up as if he were a baseball player. "Batter up," he commented. "I`d say this is a fast ball but I don`t know if I can even throw it!" Goku replied, trying to keep his balance while tilting the enormous cube back to get a good grip on it.   
  
Goku wheezed and threw the weighty object towards his son. Gohan tensed up briefly and narrowed his eyes, suddenly lashing out again. There was another whistling flash of silver and the younger Son was on his back for several seconds before sheepishly springing back up, holding the Zet Sword before himself with a grin. "I guess it was heavier than I thought..."   
  
And then the block shattered in mid-air, the explosion seeming to warp around the force of a blade passing through it. Kechim was tough alright, but it couldn`t withstand something like the Zet Sword.   
  
Then again, the same could be applied in reverse.   
  
"**_HOLY SHIT!!!_**" Shin screeched as the Zet Sword snapped in half at the blade, perfectly severed in two with the top portion stabbing several inches into the ground. Goku gaped and Gohan just stared blankly at what had been the single most powerful weapon ever made.   
  
"I guess they don`t call it the strongest metal in the universe for nothing..." Goku mumbled in disbelief. "Eh heh... Heh... Maybe that just means the sword made me so strong I broke it from swinging it too hard!" Gohan surmised. "Possible," Shin replied in shock, watching as the youth almost carelessly tossed aside the broken remains of the weapon.   
  
"But not likely," an older voice answered, seemingly from no where. Shin fell over, Gohan arched a brow and Goku just stared. "You`re the one, aren`t you?" The old figure asked, virtually a spitting image of Shin aged a few thousand years and uglier than most Hell beasts. "Who?" Goku asked. "Him," the small fellow answered, stepping right by the rising Shin and the perplexed Goku and right on up to Gohan, who just stared down at him. "You`re the one that broke the sword, correct?"   
  
"... Yeah..."   
  
"Good. I take it you`re in vast need of some power-up to kill some brutal, evil, vile, disgusting demon, correct?"   
  
"... Right..."   
  
"Good. And I take it that a young guy like you is bound to have plenty of chicks, correct?"   
  
Gohan face faulted.   
  
"Oh well, it was worth a shot," the old man shrugged. "You have a lot of power in you, want me to bring it out?"   
  
"For one thing, who in the _Hell_ are you?" Gohan asked. "I`m one of the East Kaioshin from a few billion years ago, probably around 14 or so," the old Kaioshin explained with another shrug. "... Damn, you`re old."   
  
"Eeeh... A living legend... This day get`s stranger and stranger by the hour," Shin muttered. "Legend? Hardly. It`s pretty sad when a mortal _boy_ is the only being strong enough to release me," the old god chastised his younger counterpart. Shin only glanced down. "To be expected though. By any chance, is Rice your name?"   
  
"Gohan."   
  
"Rice."   
  
"Gohan."   
  
"Rice, Gohan, same thing. I`m guessing you`ve always had lot`s of hidden power since you were an infant, right?" The old god asked. "Yeah..." Gohan nodded. "_Very_ good. I probably won`t be able to draw it all out, not if you`re as powerful as I think you are."   
  
"Eh?"   
  
"I read your ki like an open book when you were holdin` that sword, son."   
  
"... Oh. Right."   
  
"Normally I can drag out every ounce of someone`s power with ease, extending them so far beyond their limits that they become different people almost - it`s why that bastard Malak sealed me away in the sword - but for you it`s probably going to be different and it`s definately going to take longer," the elder explained. "It may also leave you changed... Tell me, son, are you afraid of that power you have?" The old god asked.   
  
Gohan was silent for several seconds.   
  
"Yes," he finally answered. "Good. You may not like what you become but if some threat is bad enough to drive a mortal to what you`ve done, it`s worth it," the smaller figure replied. "Uh... Mind if I ask a question?" Goku interrupted. "Shoot," the old god replied. "What should we call you?"   
  
"I suppose formally you`d call me Rou Kaioshin, but since I doubt you give him that formality, just call me Bob," he answered after motioning to Shin. "Bob?" Goku asked. "Yes. Bob," Bob answered. "... What the heck kinda god names himself Bob?" Goku asked in disbelief. "It`s one of the names from the older generations," Shin finally managed to speak up. "Exactly, Bob is a divine name! Now shut up!" Bob ordered, turning back to Gohan with a disgruntled grimace. "And you?"   
  
"I already told you, it`s Gohan..."   
  
"Figured as much. Sit still or stand straight kid, this`ll take a while," Bob ordered, taking a few steps back. "I`ll stand. How long is this gonna take though?" Gohan asked. "... Oh, about twenty hours for the warm-up, five hours for the actual power-up itself. It`d be faster if you weren`t so damn strong," Bob replied. "... **_TWENTY-FIVE HOURS?!_**" All three of the others asked in unison. "These things take time, now... Hold still!" Bob ordered. Gohan straightened up and mentally smacked himself for offering to stand. "Feel free to meditate if you want, might take the strain off," Bob offered, holding his hands back and gathering himself up. "I`ll think about it..."   
  
"Good. Now then... _**GUUAN PHOR!!! WAKE UP!!!**_" Bob screamed, somehow knowing the Saiyan words for 'Wake up,' as well as the English equivelent. That was one of his talents though, he could learn any language in existence just by seeing someone who knew it or parts of it. He didn`t even have to hear it. Either way, Gohan felt his hair rustle a bit and then gained a strange tightening in the back of his neck, just as the old god began doing something that equated to a rain dance in a circle around him.   
  
"This..." Shin began. "... Is going to be a while..." Goku finished.   
  
_ Oh, here you are  
There's nothing left to say   
You're not supposed to be that way   
  
"Really... Pretty childlike,"_ Hercule thought, regarding Buu as the overweight demon continued playing with Bee, flinging around a rubber ball it`d found somewhere around it`s home, likely something left over from the neighborhood Buu had effectively liquified to make it`s house. _"Innocent. How the heck did something that innocent and nice do everything he has today?"_ Hercule thought, idly hopping down from the rim of the circular doorway to Buu`s house. Buu scampered by, chasing the ball that was still bouncing along in the opposite direction, followed by the ever-enthusiastic Majin Buu.   
  
"This is fun!" Buu announced, stopping next to Hercule and watching Bee slid along, tackling the ball in mid-air and rolling with it before prancing back. "Want me to throw one?" Hercule offered curiously. "Sure! Give him the ball, Bee," Buu ordered. Bee briefly tilted it`s head to the side and dropped the ball at Hercule`s feet, somehow understanding what Buu had said to it.   
  
"Time to see if I still got it," Hercule mused, picking up the ball and winding up in the classic stance of a pitcher in a baseball game, causing Bee to tense up and then take off in the direction Satan had aimed in. A second later, the ball went whistling overhead, zinging past Bee and bouncing along. "Good throw," Buu clapped while Hercule regained his balance, sheepishly watching Bee chase the ball almost out of sight before turning around. "Probably a little too good," Hercule replied.   
  
Neither ever expected what happened next.   
  
Bee yelped and toppled over, just as the delayed sound of a gunshot rang through the wide, empty terrain of the area. Buu and Hercule both facefaulted in a mix of shock and horror, watching their dog`s seemingly lifeless body sit there with an increasingly apparent red puddle forming around it.   
  
The sound of laughter followed.   
  
Buu continued staring while Hercule glaringly looked up, setting his eyes on the forms of two men, both holding guns and both laughing harshly.   
  
  
"Is that Mister Satan down there?" McAthry asked, focusing in on the People`s Champ with a laugh. "Who cares, we`ll just kill both and be the new heroes!" Orwell replied, tossing his gun down and heaving a bazooka up onto his shoulder. "_Bombs away_!"   
  
  
"... Those..." Hercule trailed off, instinctively running forward and diving down as the bazooka round spiraled overhead and slammed right into Buu, who just stood in it`s path as if paralyzed. The smoke hadn`t even cleared by the time the former champion of the world had gotten back to his feet, angrily glaring knives up at the assassins before taking off in a sprint.   
  
Hercule Satan wasn`t the best martial artist on Earth, he never would be. He wasn`t strong like the Saiyans or even Krillin, but he was certainly good enough to deal with scum like McAthry and Orwell. Virtually flying up the side of the cliff wall, Hercule grit his teeth and sprang up over the edge in a fury. "_**THAT WAS MY DOG YOU SONS OF BITCHES!!!**_"   
  
The scene to follow wasn`t a very pleasant one for either would-be false hero.   
  
McAthry went down first, Hercule saw to that with a kick that first shattered the barrel of the bazooka that he was trying to heave up into a decent firing position, a kick which doubled back down and crashed down into the overweight Irishman`s shoulder, spiraling back up and crossing over his face with an audible pop, sending McAthry flying right down the sloped side of the cliff before he could even try to yell a warning at Orwell.   
  
The blonde fellow was hit even harder, especially since he was the one who had shot Bee.   
  
Needless to say, several of his teeth were removed in a way that would make any sane dentist weep.   
  
At least one of said-teeth actually went out through his nose. By the time the mass murderer had finished registering what had happened to him, he wasn`t even on the ground anymore. Hercule`s fists rained in, three striking in rapid succession into his body followed by three more into the face and chest, ending with a swift kick that threw him from the top of the cliff and sent him crashing to the ground in a sickening fashion.   
  
"And _**STAY DEAD!!!**_" Hercule screamed, proving that even if he was only a _former_ champion, he wasn`t exactly someone the average joe could take lightly.   
  
Straightening up, seething as he was, Hercule quickly slid down the side of the cliff wall, intentionally landing with his feet on Orwell`s groin, hard enough to cause a few more popping sounds and a lengthy scream from the formerly unconcious assassin, who was then promptly walked on as Satan made his way back towards the house.   
  
The smoke was clearing now, and he could see that Buu was virtually unscathed even after being hit dead-on by a tank killing bazooka round. Smoke was beginning to pour out of the holes in it`s head though, and if Hercule were closer, he would likely see that Buu`s eyes were finally open.   
  
_ Did they push you out?  
Did they throw you away?   
  
_ Stepping closer, Hercule paused and stared at the fallen form of Bee. "Bastards," he growled under his breath, staring at what had been his dog with a mixture of sorrow and contempt. Bee only seemed to twitch in response, and Hercule didn`t even bother to put on a show of a shock. Reflex took over and the dog was practically scooped off of the ground and carried back towards Buu in a flurry of movement that defied Hercule`s own natural limits.   
  
"**_HE`S NOT DEAD YET BUU! YOU CAN STILL SAVE `IM!!!_**"   
  
Buu`s eyes widened a bit further and the demon practically blasted off from beside it`s house, landing with a skid in front of Hercule, who himself head to skid to a halt before setting Bee down in front of Buu. "Can you do anything for him?" Hercule asked anxiously. "Yes!" Buu replied in a hurry, holding it`s arms out and going to work without delay.   
  
Several seconds later, Bee gingerly lifted his head as if to ask what the hell had happened to cause him to break a leg and get shot in the same day.   
  
"**_HE`S ALI_**-" Hercule`s joy was cut off.   
  
Another gunshot rang through the air and the former champion toppled over, a bullet wound located in the central region of his back, just between the shoulder blades. Bee scrambled out of the way of the falling figure, barely achieving success while Buu screamed.   
  
It was too much.   
  
Anger boiled beneath the surface, emotions and alignments mixed and all that the demon could knowingly think to do was hold it`s hands forward again, making the fateful choice of changing sides on all levels and healing Satan. It was a martyr`s dedication that saw it through what happened next, and Hercule rose up again on all fours only to flench as Buu spoke up.   
  
"Run away, _now_!" It warned, just before stumbling back and bursting into what sounded like pained weeping. "Buu? What`s wrong?!" Hercule asked, hopping back up and stepping forward. "_Get away now_!" Buu warned again, it`s voice seeming to warp briefly. Hercule grabbed Bee, but hesitated. "Come on Buu, let me help! I`m your fri-" "_**GET AWAY FROM HERE OR YOU`LL DIE!!!**_" Buu screamed with no less than five voices, none of them the same as it`s usual childlike ring.   
  
Hercule just did as told, turning away and hauling it off with Bee, leaving Buu to face it`s own inner demons alone.   
  
_ Touch me now and I don't care   
When you take me, I'm not there   
Almost human, but I'll never be the same   
  
_ Again and again, louder with each cry, Buu screamed, and with each scream, more smoke poured out of it`s body, tinging cream-white and drifting up into the air dozens of feet up, just as a blinding light filled the entire area, followed by a massive, utterly silent explosion, which seemed to carry no force behind it. Hercule dove behind the largest rock he could find and waited, listening to the screams and holding himself protectively over the dog.   
  
And then it all stopped.   
  
Buu fell to it`s knees with a gasp, an utterly agonized expression apparent on it`s face as it looked up in what could only be described as fear at the oversized puff of a cloud hovering far above.   
  
  
"... Crap," Dende muttered, clenching his eyes shut tightly. "What?" Videl asked. "Can you feel that?" Dende asked in reply. "Two huge powers, what about them?"   
  
"Buu just split in two," Dende replied with a grimace. "Good Buu and Evil Buu."   
  
"Our sons need a break!" ChiChi`s yell echoed as Piccolo stormed towards the edge of the Look Out in concern, followed by an unenthused Zangya and an irate Bulma and ChiChi. "What`s happened?" Piccolo asked, virtually shutting out the two women and glancing at Dende. "Buu`s split in two, Good and Evil," Dende replied without even bothering to look back. "Great," Piccolo growled, turning around after the umpteenth time that Bulma yanked his cloak. "What?!" He demanded.   
  
"You`re working them to death!" Bulma replied angrily. "Our boys need a break," ChiChi added. "They`re getting one right now," Piccolo answered gruffly. "More than that, they`re tired, mentally and physically! All of this stupid dancing has worn away at them, they need sleep and food!"   
  
Piccolo was silent.   
  
"Well?" Bulma asked.   
  
Piccolo was still silent, though his eyes were beginning to narrow.   
  
"Are they going to have a break or not?" ChiChi demanded.   
  
"**_BOTH OF YOU, SHUT THE HELL UP!!!_**" Piccolo finally barked out. "If I could give either of them a break, I`d have fucking done it by now! The fate of the entire universe is hanging in the balance and you`re both upset because your sons look a little bored?! If Vegeta were here, he`d be pushing them to the extent that they`d be half-dead by now, compared to how Goku and I trained Gohan, we`re going _painfully_ easy on those two and you have the unbridled _nerve_ to say we`re being too tough on them?!" Piccolo demanded in an enraged frustration, practically glowering down at the two women. Neither seemed to even hear him.   
  
"What do you think, Zangya?" Bulma asked heatedly, glancing over the the short alien woman with one of those looks that made you want to climb up a tree. "I think he`s got a valid point. I don`t know how hard he and Goku trained Gohan but there are bigger things at stake than whether or not Goten and Trunks are enjoying themselves," she conceded with a shrug.   
  
"They`re actually agreeing on something," Videl commented sarcastically. "I give this period of unity all of five minutes before they begin to rip one another limb from limb again," Dende replied with the same tone.   
  
"This isn`t fair to them," ChiChi growled. "**_WASN`T RUINING MY FIRST SON ENOUGH FOR YOU?!_**" She yelled before stomping off. Piccolo sneered in a mixture of contempt and annoyance. "I guess you`ll have to make peace with her some time," Zangya commented bemusedly. "I doubt she`ll let me," Piccolo replied, glancing back over the edge of the Look Out. "It`s not exactly like I _enjoy_ having to turn little kids into killing machines..."   
  
Bulma didn`t bother replying, storming off after ChiChi. Zangya glanced over from Piccolo to Dende and Videl.   
  
"Get Yamcha to do it, neither of us are suicidal enough to try and calm them down," Dende replied to her gaze before she could even ask the question. "What`s going on down there?" Piccolo asked. "It looks like the Evil Buu just finished forming. They`ll probably begin fighting soon and I`m not sure if Good Buu is up to the challenge, venting his evil out left him pretty weak."   
  
"Alright... That leaves us just enough time," Piccolo thought, turning back towards Zangya. "Do you think you can continue their training alone from here?" He asked. "Yes, why? You cutting out on me?" Zangya asked monotonously. "No. You can dance better than I can though. Do you know where the Room of Spirit and Time is located?" Piccolo asked. "Yes..."   
  
"Good. Get the boys and be ready to go there soon, if the Evil Buu is able to sense energy he`ll make a byline right for the Look Out and they aren`t finished training yet," Piccolo explained. "... I hate it when you`re right," Zangya replied annoyedly. "Too bad for you I`m _always_ right," Piccolo replied with that challenging smirk. "All in your head, Stringbean."   
  
Zangya darted off before Piccolo could shoot back another insult.   
  
"One minute... Damn, we were _really_ off," Videl stated bemusedly.   
  
_ Long way down  
I don't think I'll make it on my own   
  
_ The crater that had been the cliff that Orwell had tried climbing to escape burned red hot, ashed over and smoking occasionally as the evil, thin personification of Majin Buu hovered alone in the skies above it. It was the exact opposite of the good, fat version of Buu, grape purple instead of bubblegum pink, wearing the same clothing but with a dark blue bedsheet instead of a purple one, with big black eyes and an old looking face. It was also extremely tall, even compared to the seven and a half foot tall blob that had given birth to it.   
  
Turning around, Thin Buu stared down at Fat Buu, only to flash down to the ground and make a strange, funny looking run towards it`s fearful counterpart.   
  
Both Buus stood before one another, one paused in the pose of running, the other standing expectantly before it with an animalistic growl.   
  
_ Long way down  
I don't want to live in here alone   
  
_ "Stop staring at me," Good Buu ordered through grit teeth, finally pushing up to eye level with Evil Buu, who only forced him back. "Fatty," it replied. "Twig!" Good Buu shot back. "Beefcake Bubblegum!" Evil Buu answered loudly. "_**DRIED OUT GRAPE CRAP!!!**_" Good Buu fired off. "_**BEEFY SOGGY BUBBLEGUM MAGGOT!!!**_" Evil Buu retorted sharply.   
  
_ Long way down  
I don't think I'll make it on my own   
  
_ The fighting wasn`t long in coming. Good Buu lashed out first, a flurry of rapid punches that Evil Buu easily dodged away from before roughly smacking it`s counterpart away and floating up. Good Buu followed it`s Evil opposite number up into the air, throwing it`s hands back in the classic stance for a Kame Hame Ha and powering up, a move mirrored by Thin Buu.   
  
The explosion to follow threw Hercule, Bee and McAthry all off of the ground and sent Fat Buu careening into the ground with a cratering explosion.   
  
_ I never put you down  
I never pushed you away   
You're not supposed to be that way   
And anything you want  
There's nothing I could say  
  
_ Good Buu was slow to get back up, dazedly standing and then dusting itself off. Pain was an entirely new experience to the morbidly obese demon, at least pain that wasn`t mildly amusing after a while. Evil Buu simply stood in the air with a seemingly permanent frown, the kind you could expect from an aged war veteran who thought the world owed him something.   
  
"Turn into chocolate!" Fat Buu screamed, whipping it`s tail forward and lashing out with a spiralling pinkish beam of transformation magicks, which Evil Buu simply watched approach. A full second passed by as Fat Buu`s attack sped through the air and came within hitting distance of Thin Buu, but then the grape colored poster child for anorexic demons took in a deep breath and literally blew the attack right back at it`s shorter, fatter counterpart.   
  
Good Buu flenched and then outright screamed as it`s own attack hit home, and the changes weren`t pleasant at all. Seconds passed while Fat Buu fought it`s own magicks, but after a time, all the wear and tear of birthing Evil Buu had gotten to it, and in a matter of torturous moments, the overweight Majin Buu was no more.   
  
A flash of pink light and a chocolate cookie shaped exactly like Fat Buu landed softly on the ground, only to be scooped back up and promptly consumed by Thin Buu.   
  
_ Is there anything to feel?   
Is it pain that makes you real?  
Cut me off before it kills me   
  
_ "... Great... Just great," Dende commented sourly, glancing up at Piccolo. "It looks like our hopes of Buu becoming purely good just got dashed," he reported somberly. "I noticed. All that`s left now is to hope he can`t sense ki and if he can, Zangya can get the boys into the Room of Spirit and Time," Piccolo replied gruffly, calmly watching the clouds below.   
  
Something evil beyond words was being born down there.   
  
_ Long way down  
I don't think I'll make it on my own   
  
_ One mile away, a mountain was levelled.   
  
_ Long way down  
I don't want to live in here alone   
  
_ Five miles away, a visible shockwave passed through the atmosphere, tearing apart the remains of two nearby cities and turning part of a nearby mountain range into a liquid cloud of super heated mud and lava.   
  
_ Long way down  
I don't think I'll make it on my own   
  
_ Across the continent, wild life panicked and people fell to the ground from tremors powerful enough to be felt across the face of the planet.   
  
_ I never put you down  
I never pushed you away   
  
_ But at the center of this maelstrom of chaos, all that could be seen was a whirling pink-and-purple tornado streaked with black whisps of energy and covered in the faces of the dead, screaming in horror.   
  
_ Take another piece of me   
Give my mind a new disease   
And the black and white world never fades to grey   
  
_ The skies went black, the clouds turned red and the universe wept as the tornado began to slow, the screams of the dead suddenly being silenced one by one in disturbingly rapid succession in a terrible symphony of nightmares that could scarcely be described, let alone believed. A final shockwave passed off of the tornado and the skies returned to blue, the grass stained black and died, rock formations twisted up as if in pain and the air itself became thick with a scent one could describe as watermelon flavored bubblegum, heavier than a cloud of carbon dioxide and just as visible.   
  
At it`s center, one figure, the same height as Evil Buu, stood silently, staring ahead of itself as if to gauge it`s own vision. Silence fell, deafening and absolute while Hercule inched up past his covering and stared in awed horror at the muscularly trimmed figure that stood dozens of feet away. It looked like a perfect cross between Fat and Thin Buu, the coloring was just darker than Fat, the height was the same as Thin, the body was muscled rather than sickly or obese, the headtail seemed longer and the face just a bit younger and far more demonic.   
  
The clothing was the same as either Buu from the waist down, but this Buu wore gauntlets and no shirt or cape, bearing only a fanged grin of malicious intent before glaring skyward and screaming loudly enough that the ground, already weakened seconds before, simply cracked and shattered beneath it`s feet.   
  
Super Buu had been born.   
  
It`s first victim, it decided, was going to be McAthry, who was now beginning to crawl out of cover and climb up the remains of the cliff wall from earlier. Shots rang out again, bullets pierced the new Buu`s body and exploded right out, continuing on their courses as if they`d simply passed through and leaving holes behind in the creature`s body.   
  
It only met the attack with an apathetic look of planning and patience.   
  
McAthry flenched when the wounds seemed to puddle shut, but he never had time to scream.   
  
By the time he`d opened his mouth, Buu had flooded down his throat, filling up every single open space into the man`s body and slowly forcing blood and bone, internal organs and muscle tissue to leak out in some disgusting goopy concoction that seemed more fitting of a horror movie than reality. McAthry only managed to gag before his eyes popped out of his skull, replaced by the hollow black-and-red circles that were the eyes of the new Buu.   
  
The body seemed to dance around briefly as if it were merely a costume, and then, just as quickly and shockingly as the attack had begun, Buu literally ripped it`s new 'suit' right off, tossing McAthry`s warped flesh and bone aside and stepping out, completely dry as if the blood itself refused to touch it.   
  
"... Heh..." Buu voiced, though this voice seemed deeper and somehow more expressive than the voices of either previous Buu. Maybe it was the strange way the voice seemed to carry insanity with it, or maybe it was just because it could be felt as much as it could be heard. Whatever it was, it sent shocked chills down Satan`s spine, and the former world champion quietly ducked behind his rock, sheltering Bee protectively and muttering out prayers to himself.   
  
Not even the trauma of seeing Tokyo burn could compare to the events of the past hour.   
  
Not by a long shot.   
  
_ Long way down  
I don't think I'll make it on my own   
Long way down  
I don't want to live in here alone   
Long way down  
  
_ Buu slowly, very slowly, turned towards the rock that Satan was hiding behind, deliberately taking it`s time before perching atop that very rock and tapping Hercule on his scalp as lightly as it could manage.   
  
_ I don't think I'll make it on my own  
On my own  
  
_ "Hello," Buu said with a psychotic grin as Hercule and Bee looked up in fear.   
  
_ On my own...   
  


End Part Twenty

_  
  


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**Author`s Note:** Muhuhahaha! Cliffhanger! **_PH33R!!!_**  
  
**CysticLOL17:** It may borrow a great deal from the series but Generations branches off severely at a good many points, the timetables for Hercule`s friendship with Buu and Gotenks` birth are just some of them. And yeah, Goku coming to terms with Gohan was something the series really should`ve had happen, unfortunately, Toriyama had to skip his original plan due to fan wants - or so I`ve heard. Real shame given how nice that would`ve been to see...  
  
**Professor Authordude:** o_O; Well, it`s true... Seriously, the E key is almost completely faded white now and the S, A, O, R, T and C keys aren`t doing much better. As for the whole 'I see death in the eyes of my son' thing... Heh. It may be fleshed out and it may be saved for a potential sequel if I decide to continue with HT after this, I don`t know yet and I highly doubt it`ll ever be fully resolved.  
  
**diamondgirl:** Yeah, too many people trash Hercule... He may be an ass at times and he may screw up a lot but come on! *Holds up a Hercule flag and starts chanting 'Satan, Satan!' real loud. Then gets battered with crosses and bibles by local fundamentalists.* x_x;;  
  
That`s all for now, Sh33p out, enjoy, leave a review and see ya next time! 


	22. Slept So Long

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


**Hybrid Theory: Generations**  
_ Slept So Long   
  
  
  
_

"Hercule," the newest, and the only surviving incarnation of Majin Buu said throatily, leaning over the edge of the rock it was perched on and staring down cryptically at Mister Satan and Bee, both of whom were cringing in visible fear. Terror defined the situation perfectly as the Super Buu stared at the two in an empty sort of way that held almost no thought, only a mixture of apathy, disdain, amusement and disgust, a look that sent shivers up and down Hercule`s spinal cord.   
  
That feeling wasn`t helped when Buu reached down gingerly, placing it`s index finger to his forehead and speaking with a voice that echoed threat so vile it could scarcely be treated as understandable.   
  
"Now live, evil won," Buu stated cryptically drawing away with a glazed looking little smile before the air around the rock suddenly became supercharged and ignited in a pink-white aura of fire intense enough that it made Hercule`s skin begin to blister for all of a second before Buu shot off of it`s perch and took off with a cackle of malicious insanity that rang through his ears long after Buu itself had gone.   
  
_ Walking, waiting  
Alone without a care  
Hoping, hating  
Things I can't bear   
  
_ "Something tells me we just witnessed the birth of the apocalypse," Hercule said to the dog, staring at the distant pink vapor trail with an ever growing pit in his stomach. He honestly didn`t want to know just how right he was...   
  
_ Did you think it's cool?  
To walk right up  
To take my life and fuck it up  
Well did you?  
Well did you?  
  
_ "Did you feel that?" Goku asked, almost a bit scared. It was true that most people thought of the legendary Tenkaichi Budoukai champion as completely lacking fear, but in truth he was just as fearful the next guy, the chief difference was that he knew how to overcome it. Usually, anyway. Right now, Goku was probably more afraid than he had ever been in his life, even if it was more for the people of Earth than himself or anyone else. "He`s back," Shin muttered.   
  
"Something happened down there then?" Goku asked again. "Yes. It was one of the occurrences I feared the most," Shin answered. "Buu seperated itself, good from evil, and then it fought a civil war. Evil won," he stated rather fatalistically. "Buu was good?" Goku asked in mild disbelief. Nice and competitive sure, but good? "Yes and no. The fat Buu was neither good, nor evil, simply innocent of both, that was why Babidee could control him. He was the way he was because he is the result of the absorbtion of the last Dai Kaioshin, making him above both until something happened to make him align fully with the side of good..."   
  
"And to do that meant expelling the evil from himself," Goku surmised. "Thin Buu," he added with a lucky guess. "I wouldn`t know, but the current Buu is neither thin now fat. He`s the Buu that massacred most of the Kaios and Kaioshins, born out of the absorbtion of one of the South Kaioshins," Shin explained. "As powerful as you may be Goku, you and I both are nothing compared to this Buu," he stated somberly.   
  
"... Well isn`t _that_ encouraging," Goku mumbled sarcastically. "It wasn`t supposed to be," Shin replied annoyedly. "Just how many forms does Buu have anyway?" Goku asked, changing the subject artfully. "That I`ve seen, three, as well as whatever embodied the evil that Fat Buu expelled," Shin answered. "This is really..."   
  
"Insane?" Shin asked. "Couldn`t have said it better. How much longer do you think it`ll be before Gohan`s power-up finishes?" Goku asked, glancing over his shoulder worriedly. "I`m not sure, it`s only been what... Two hours?" He asked. "... Odd, it felt longer than that..."   
  
"Time on Kaioshin-kai is measured differently than on Earth. Twenty-five hours here is equivelent to five hours on the Earth," Shin said as an afterthought. "... Why didn`t you say that at the start of this?" Goku asked with a slight twitch. "Didn`t cross my mind," Shin said with a shrug.   
  
_ I see hell in your eyes  
Taken in by surprise  
Touching you makes me feel alive  
Touching you makes me die inside  
  
_ "He`ll be here soon," Piccolo growled out towards Dende. "_Everyone_," he called out. "_Get back and out of the way_!" He followed up. "No," Dende stated. "He`s murdering my planet, I intend on seeing him face-to-face for myself," he added. "I`m not deserting either of you," Videl said with a shrug, whilst Mister Popo calmly stepped towards the group and stood with them. He was God`s right hand man after all, and that meant being loyal to the end. "Your funerals then," Piccolo stated. "What`s taking him so long?" Dende asked.   
  
"He`s taking the long way... His ki skills must be limited to what direction his opponents are in," Piccolo deduced with the kind of skill and insight that made him one of the most lethal warriors alive even when all of the surviving Saiyans had seemingly surpassed him but two of the boys. "What makes you think that?" Dende asked. "Something as evil as that? Don`t kid yourself Dende, he`d have been here by now if he knew our exact locations."   
  
"One has to wonder just how you know Buu so well," Videl commented offhandedly. "I didn`t spend a combined total of 612* years playing the roles of God, Devil and Demon Prince without learning how these things work," Piccolo replied calmly. "... But you`re only four years older than Gohan," Dende mused. "Everyone keeps making the mistake that I`m still the original Piccolo Daimio Junior - I`m not," Piccolo stated cryptically. "Now shut up and get ready, he`s passing over Upa`s tri-" "He just killed them," Dende interrupted sourly.   
  
"Passed by Korin... _**HERE HE COMES!!!**_" Piccolo announced to those with the common sense to stay out of the way, his gruff voice carrying all the way back to the palace and into the ears of the people there. Piccolo hadn`t even finished turning back towards the edge when he reflexively bent forward slightly and grit his teeth together.   
  
Majin Buu wasn`t on his way.   
  
He was already hovering before them, laughing in a perverse, guttural fashion.   
  
Even Piccolo, for perhaps one of the few times in his full existence - including the memories of 292 years in the Denshi Jar`s blackness, the brutality of Kami`s first battle against Garlic Senior during the Trials of Ascension, the ferocity of Frieza in attacking him, Cell`s onslaught and the Androids before him - Piccolo felt the emotion known as fear.   
  
Piccolo didn`t like feeling fear. He was fine with inspiring it, he still got a slightly sick kick out of scaring the living daylights out of people, but he didn`t like feeling fear himself.   
  
He also didn`t give into it. Piccolo refused to gawk, he refused to shiver and cringe and he outright denied any and all potential movements that would cause such things to happen. Dende, Popo and Videl were all having trouble even blinking without wanting to run away but Piccolo? He just straightened up and stood there like nothing was happening.   
  
"I`ve finally found you," Buu announced between laughs, lowering down onto the exact edge of the Look Out. "So it would seem," Piccolo replied coolly. "Heh... So you`re Demon Junior," Buu said with a toothy little grin, stepping forward until he was at eye level with the Namek. "Nail, Kami, Kamiccolo, Kamiccolail, Piccolo Daimio, Piccolo Daimio Junior, Piccolo Junior, Green Devil, Green Demon, Ma, Ma Junior, whatever you want to call me," Piccolo replied. "Piccolo... Do you mind if I rip one of your arms off, gouge holes in it and play it like a flute?" Buu asked sadistically.   
  
"Allow me," Piccolo replied, grabbing his own wrist and brutally tearing his own arm off before biting several puncture wounds into it. He then promptly extended the arm out to Buu - literally - who took it in hand with a smile. "So accommodating," he voiced. Piccolo regrew his arm without so much as a grunt, splattering green blood along on the tiling for several feet. "Consider it a gift from one demon to another," he replied coldly.   
  
Buu only smirked in a dazed manner, rocking his head back and forth at an impossible angle for the build of his thick, overgrown neck, promptly breaking into quiet laughter before eating Piccolo`s severed arm whole. "Good flavor," he commented, leaning forward. "Isn`t that just special?" Piccolo asked. _"What the hell is he doing?"_ Videl thought in disgust.   
  
"Bring him out," Buu ordered. "Who?" Piccolo asked. "Him... I was promised a good fight... That fellow didn`t lie to me now, did he?" Buu asked. "I`ll just have to murder everyone here if he did..."   
  
"Don`t worry. He`ll be out soon enough, we just need to bring him up to speed... He was just taking a nap, after all," Piccolo lied.   
  
"Bring him out now."   
  
"Do you want a good fight? A proper challenge? Or do you want some half-asleep weakling who won`t even be able to amuse you no matter what way you blow him up, torture him or eat him alive and screaming?" Piccolo asked. "... Heh... Maybe I`ll let you live just to see how long until you break while I kill everyone," Buu said with a grin. "If you want," Piccolo shrugged. Buu might have had a sadistic mastery of mind games but Piccolo wasn`t playing.   
  
"How long?" Buu asked.   
  
"One hour," Piccolo stated. "How long is that?" Buu asked in disdain. Piccolo held out his hands and called upon a small amount of the magic skills that he had inherited from the previous incarnations of Piccolo, manifesting a bit of his his own energy between his hands and then forcibly molding it into the general shape of an hour glass before completing the act and forcing the bit of ki to assume physical form, right into a perfectly made antique hour glass filled with green sand.   
  
"When all of the sand finishes flowing from the top of this glass to the bottom, an hour will have passed," Piccolo stated, setting the glass down in front of Buu and folding his arms over his chest. "... Be glad I`m patient," Buu growled annoyedly. "Be glad you`re giving him the time to wake up. You`re in for the fight of your life Buu, I gaurantee it," Piccolo stated shrewdly before turning away and walking towards the palace. "Dende! Popo! Videl! Come on," Piccolo ordered with the same shrewdness as his gaurantee to Buu.   
  
"Wait," Buu sneered, glancing up at Videl with a sick little grin. "You`re Satan`s spawn, aren`t you?" He asked. "You know my father?" Videl asked. "Hercule... I knew the scent was familiar," Buu replied. "How do you know my father?" Videl asked again. She`d known about Fat Buu`s friendship with him, but she`d really expected this Buu to have killed Hercule rather than leave him alive. "That is for me to know, and you to die out," Buu replied with the same cryptic tone he`d used earlier with Hercule.   
  
Videl didn`t ask anything further, she merely stepped after Dende and Popo, following them while they followed Piccolo towards the Look Out. Buu only smiled before settling down into a crouch, staring at the sand as it passed through the hour glass in a quiet stream.   
  
No one really noticed as ChiChi sternly walked out of the palace through a side door and made her way over towards Buu, purpose in her step.   
  
_ Walking, waiting  
Alone without a care  
Hoping, hating  
Things I can't bear  
  
_ No one except those up in the main tower of the palace that is. In specific, Goten and Trunks, now getting a quick bit of time to cool off after all of their practice at the Fusion dance, along with Krillin and the Ox King, as well as Zangya and Master Roshi.   
  
"What does she think she`s doing?" Krillin muttered in disbelief, fighting back the impulse to grab ChiChi and drag her back into the palace. It wasn`t that he was a coward though, Krillin just wasn`t insane. "I guess being a suicidal dipshit is a common family trait," Jack commented offhandedly from his vantage point, sitting atop the crimson jewel of Zangya`s necklace. "Mom..."   
  
They watched in anxiety as ChiChi finished her walk towards Buu.   
  
And they watched in even further anxiety as she roughly smacked him across the back of the head before yelling about her first son`s apparent demise.   
  
And they watched in fear when Buu slowly looked up from the hour glass and spoke up.   
  
And then they watched in horror as ChiChi was turned into an egg.   
  
And in specific, Goten watched in shock when Buu stepped on the egg hard enough to grind a foot-shaped imprint into the tiling.   
  
_ Did you think it's cool?  
To walk right up  
To take my life and fuck it up  
Well did you?   
  
_ Goten`s eyes stung, his entire life had just effectively been shattered. Already effectively a fatherless bastard if you asked Jack, now his only sibling was dead and he had just been turned into an orphan by the same demon that had so ruthlessly cut down his brother. The boy`s fingers weren`t long in grinding small trenches into the safety wall at the sight of what had just happened. Even Trunks, who thought of ChiChi almost like a second mother, had been taken off gaurd.   
  
The Ox King simply let out a choking wheeze and keeled over, fainting instantly. He didn`t have the emotional durability of the rest of his family, not anymore. He was too old, too emotionally weak and too shocked to take it very well, so he fainted. It wasn`t that odd and it wasn`t an out-of-place reaction.   
  
"... Yep. The trait runs in the family," Jack commented with barely veiled amusement. _  
  
I... _  
  
Goten`s eyes faded again, from black to a murderous green, not the teal or jade of Super Saiyan either, but the lime green from earlier.   
  
_ Hate...   
  
_ The boy`s hair followed a similar transition as a crimson light filled the room, flittering up into the torch-like pattern of Super Saiyan but differing severely in color. It was blood red once more. His teeth audibly ground together and Goten flared his nostrils, looking out and out terrifying for a mere six year old child.   
  
_** You!   
  
**_ "**_I`LL KILL HIM!!!_**" Goten screamed with a voice that wasn`t his own, a voice that seemed to mirror that of Majin Buu in at least depth, but it was far angrier and held so much hatred that it could be felt, tasted, seen and smelled in addition to being heard.   
  
Stop right there!" Zangya shouted, snapping her arm right through the heated flames of the boy`s aura and holding him in place by the shoulder. Tears were flowing down Goten`s face as he turned and glared towards his surrogate aunt.   
  
_ I see hell in your eyes  
Taken in by surprise  
And touching you makes me feel alive  
Touching you makes me die inside  
  
_ "At your current level, he`d kill you just as easily as he killed her and Gohan!" Zangya sharply stated as Goten smacked her hand away hard enough to leave a bruise beneath the glove. "Skankya has a point," Jack stated, attempting to calm his host down, if only to keep Goten from getting them both killed. "He just murdered my mother, I`m a god damned orphan bastard now," Goten growled. "And do you think dying is going to make up for her death?" Zangya asked. "If I blow myself up big enough," Goten said with malice behind every word. He wasn`t joking.   
  
"Vegeta and Cell both tried that, they`re both _dead_ as a result," Zangya replied. Goten snorted, somehow finding the resolve to forcibly power back down, though his hair and eyes seemed to faintly tinge red and lime green if the light struck them properly. "I don`t care what it takes, if I have to learn that stupid dance to kill that bastard then I will, if I have to _eat_ him then I will," Goten growled, that reddish glow faintly returning as an outline of his body. "If he dies, I don`t care how it happens," he added. Zangya nodded, Trunks only glanced out towards Buu with a shake of the head.   
  
"Let`s go then," Zangya ordered, turning towards the exit. "Where?" Trunks asked for Goten, who was busy brooding murderously. "The Room of Spirit and Time," Zangya replied, walking towards the steps. Goten grabbed Trunks by his hair and forcibly yanked him along, speed walking after Zangya with a seething anger practically hovering over his every movement.   
  
_ I've slept so long without you  
It's tearing me apart too  
How'd it get this far  
Playing games with this old heart  
I've killed a million petty souls  
But I couldn't kill you  
  
"I`m going to kill him,"_ Goten thought over and over again, heedlessly delving into every memory of every technique he`d ever seen and making a point to see how he could improve them. Even if he wasn`t strong enough - yet - he intended to put Buu through the ringer, Fusion or no.   
  
And that was when the idea of modifying the Kienzan came to mind. _"Galactica Donut... Yeah, humiliating, stupid names for moves that`ll kill him,"_ Goten thought, ignoring Trunks` cries of annoyance. "Stupid, yes, humiliating? I don`t know about that..." Jack commented from his new perch atop Zangya`s scalp. The boy didn`t reply though, he only glared straight ahead and sped up his walk a bit more, earning a few more annoyed comments from Trunks and a slightly disturbed look from Zangya.   
  
_ I've slept so long without you   
  
_ "Almost time," Jack thought, leering down into Zangya`s eyes, though he knew she couldn`t see him even if she wanted. No one but Goten and Death could see him, but he was alright with that.   
  
That would all change soon enough.   
  
_ I see hell in your eyes  
Taken in by surprise  
Touching you makes me feel alive  
Touching you made me die inside  
  
"I hope this works,"_ Zangya thought, turning a sharp corridor and darting towards the large, ivory painted wooden door that sat below a strange looking clock. It was the Room of Spirit and Time.   
  
It was the Earth`s last real hope.   
  
Opening the door to the room that doubled as an alternate dimension, Zangya led the way inside, sliding it shut a few seconds later. Only Goten managed to notice the small shadow that seemed to leap from Zangya`s necklace and trail along on the floor of the small house-like building that bordered dimensions like a check-in stations.   
  
Only Goten seemed to move forward, purpose filling each and every step as Trunks stood at the door, rubbing his now messed scalp while Zangya slid the door shut and breathed a small sigh. Everything felt a bit heavier now, for her it was nothing noticable, Trunks had a bit of trouble standing though.   
  
"What now?" Trunks asked, glancing up at Zangya as she turned around and faced him, not really bothering to look up in Goten`s general direction. "Now... We train. We make you two stronger and we make you two learn Fusion until you can do it blindfolded. Now..."   
  
Zangya paused as the entire building suddenly took on a fiery gold-and-crimson glow. In unison, she and Trunks looked up from the ground to see not one, but _two_ figures standing before the station.   
  
One was Goten, hair standing on end in an odd mixture of Super Saiyan and whatever strange transformation he`d gone through earlier, aura blending and fading between gold and red. The other was entirely different. Contrasting to Goten`s small stature, this one easily stood at at _least_ even height with Piccolo. The contrast didn`t stop there though, this figure was also bulky and muscular in comparison to the limber build of the boy before him.   
  
And then there were a few last details...   
  
Such as his skin. It was strange, fluctuating from a ghastly pale white to a dull lime green, faster and faster each time before settling into the second color. His eyes seemed to undergo a similar transition, flashing from the same tone and color as Zangya`s dark blue/greens to a similar red to that in Goten`s own eyes. Even his hair seemed sickeningly familiar, flashing from a dead orange to a bloody, living red.   
  
"I`m going to enjoy this," Bojack said with a roguish grin. "So am I," Goten replied stonily, lowering down into a fighting stance.   
  
_

End Part Twenty-One  
  


* * *

  
  


_ **Author`s Note:** AHAHAHAHAHA! A cookie to the two people who figured it out without me blatantly pointing it out to them: Eric Ford and Anonymous *Tosses out the cookies.* I`ve been waiting to get that one out since Forgotten! *Cackles insanely and rolls away.*  
  
**CysticLOL17:** Yeah, for some reason I saw him in the manga and instantly thought to myself "Hey, if Kaioshin goes by the name of Shin during the Budoukai, North Kaio goes by King Kaio 90% of the time(probably out of ego tripping) and Kami`s real name is Piccolo, wouldn`t it be possible for Shin to be Kaioshin`s true name? Which means the old Kaioshin would need one too... Which means... **BOB!**" or something like that :P I dunno, that name just fit him like a glove.  
  
**cobra:** Glad you`re still enjoying things, keep readin`!  
  
**jcghjghjgh:** Apparently you never read Redux. Juu decided for a name change because, to her at least, Juuhachigou sounded better than Android Eighteen, even though it meant the same thing, only being said in a different language. Chestnut is Krillin`s last name in most fan fics and it fits, so I adopted it for my own usage here, she`s married and as such, has a different last name from before. It`s a long backstory, you`d do good to read it before trying to pick out what you think are stupid flaws.  
  
**Born4Glory:** Nice to see you left the festering pit of hell that is the SM/DBZ crossover section :/ And like I said in the mail I sent, you missed a large chunk of the storyline in general if you never read the stories before Generations. Start with Hybrid Theory or Lake of Fire(you can find the entire series on my site if you want), then keep reading if you`re interested from there. The characters in HT are all at least passingly different from the ones in the series because they`ve all gone through different changes, more battles, more drama, the works.  
  
**shadowwolf75:** Glad ya like it! Though I`d kinda like for you to not be insulting other reviewers in the review section, sets up too much potential for a flamewar, yanno?  
  
**Professor Authordude:** Yeah, **BOB!** And yeah, they do have a problem. And yeah, Piccolo and Zangya do need to have some sense smacked into them at times, eh? I would`ve been expecting Goku to say something like that too, had I not read the manga. You`d be amazed at how much the anime butchers all the characters...  
  
That`s all for now, though as a forewarning: You`re gonna hate my guts for the next one *Evil laugh.*  
  
Enjoy, leave a review and see ya next time! Sh33p out.  
  



	23. Bodies

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations  
**_ Bodies   
  
  
  
_

"Bojack," Zangya muttered in shock. "Hey slut, long time no see," Bojack replied arrogantly. "You`re real now," Goten stated, his hair seeming to fade a bit slower now until it settled to red streaked with a myriad collection of slightly tarnished gold. His eyes seemed to slide into a shade of teal, remaining that way for the time being. His stance was the same as the alternate future variation of himself that his older brother had once encountered years earlier, but his goal was decisively changed.   
  
"Yeah. I`m real, Shrimp. Come get me," Bojack said with a grin, leaving himself entirely open to attack. Goten didn`t need a second invitation.   
  
_ Let the bodies hit the floor  
Let the bodies hit the floor  
Let the bodies hit the floor  
  
_ The explosion to follow rattled Trunks and Zangya both, but the first boy wasn`t going to be delayed for a split second. Powering up into Super Saiyan with a flash of light, Trunks hunched forward ever so slightly, hesitantly following the action as his best friend assaulted his own demons head-on for the first time in his life. "Who the heck is that?!" Trunks demanded, propping himself up on a wall to help stand. "That`s Bojack! Gohan killed him twice!" Zangya replied over the echoing blows the two fighters were trading back and forth between each other.   
  
"Then what the hell is he doing here?!"   
  
"... Jack! _Shit_," Zangya slapped her own forehead. "Jack _is_ Bojack!" She exclaimed loudly enough for Trunks to hear, grabbing the boy by his shoulder and skyrocketing straight up through the roof of the small shelter and carrying him into the skies above, unwittingly being followed by the clashing maelstrom that Goten and his demon had become. "_**THAT**_ is Jack?!" Trunks yelped in disbelief. "Goten said he was only six inches tall!"   
  
"Then Goten must not be that good at measurement," Zangya commented, promptly shoving Trunks out of the way and then diving backwards herself as the two combatants blazed by, a ki beam suddenly lancing out past Goten and barely missing Trunks` face by a matter of inches. Bojack drifted back, arm outstretched, and Goten followed his movements to a tee, bar the part about his arm being raised.   
  
Bojack`s cheek suddenly split open. A trickle of purple slid down his cheek as a result. "So you can be hurt now," Goten said. "And I can hurt you too," Bojack replied as Goten`s forehead began to bruise a dark pink. "Let`s play a fun little game..."   
  
"Who dies first," Goten finished, stating it more than asking it. "You know me pretty good kid," Bojack stated with a smile. "I`ll finish Gohan`s work," Goten stated. "I`ll kill you once and for all," he added, promising it just from his tone of voice alone. "Try me."   
  
"**_ZEICHENKETTE KNALL!!!_**"   
  
Bojack vanished in a number of small-but-powerful explosions, each of them shimmering a different color than the one next to it, continuing on as string after string of warped ki zinged through the air in the same pattern as a gattling gun firing every barrel off three at a time. Goten only spared a single iced glance over at Zangya, who still held her hands outward, feet thrown forward and legs slightly spread, hands joined at the butt of each wrist join, fingers opened but the tips pointed at her target.   
  
"You`re not firing enough," Goten muttered, throwing his hands up above his head and letting out a scream.   
  
"**_MASENKO-HA!!!_**"   
  
The explosions from Zangya`s attack vanished instantly as the orange-red hewed beam slid through the air at the speed of light, impacting something relatively large within the numerous smaller explosions and letting off a massive shockwave that literally flattened Zangya`s attacks while the beam itself continued onward.   
  
Goten had never used Masenko before. He hadn`t even seen it on more than three occasions.   
  
Stopping his attack instantly, Goten crouched forward, a movement followed by Zangya and Trunks both, all three set up in a triangle pattern around the cloud of smoke that had been and still was Bojack.   
  
_ Beaten why for   
Can't take much more   
  
_ The green hulk splashed out of the smoke like a demon god from the pits of a smogged up Hell, charred slightly but otherwise unharmed. Bojack slid through the skies, appearing in front of Zangya with a howl and winding up. The smaller fighter was ready though, and rather than trying the mistake of blocking the enormous punch that barrelled her way, Zangya sent both of her own hands on an intercept course and parried it along the bend of her own arm, using her size to her advantage and slipping past Bojack while Trunks attacked, darting in close and hitting the goliath with both feet into the upper back.   
  
Bojack didn`t budge an inch.   
  
Trunks flew back, though not under his own power, and Zangya followed, only to stop on a dime and reverse course.   
  
"**_MEHRFACH FLASH SLAM!_**"   
  
Bojack only smirked as Zangya seemed to split into nine equally sized clones of herself, trailing along a dozen mirage-like after images each, only to each suddenly corkscrew into a pattern and land nine equally strong his into him, rejoining into one Zangya, who promptly dropped straight down as all nine sets of twelve after images struck dead center on her _former_ lover.   
  
Bojack drifted back after a while, righting himself again and rubbing his chin lightly. "Quaint," he said to himself. "I see you`ve adopted announcing your attacks like these twits do," he mused. "They grew on me," Zangya said with a sneer and a shrug. "Cute. Really," Bojack stated drearily.   
  
"They are actually, you just have to give them the proper time," Zangya replied, curling into a fighting stance. Most people expected women tasked with fighting their former lovers and comrades to curl in on themselves to some extent or another, but Zangya?   
  
She literally threw herself into the mission laid out before her.   
  
With almost the same level of fervor that Goten interrupted the former star crossed pair, blazing into view in the literal sense and crashing his feet hard into Bojack`s cheek. "Forgetting someone?" He asked, grinding the soles of his shoes into his demon`s face by twisting in mid-speech. "Only a bloody nose I gotta wipe clean every now and then," Bojack replied, gingerly backhanding Goten across the face and throwing him away like nothing as a result. The boy tumbled along briefly before Trunks caught him, almost having to hold the now lightheaded Son back for a few seconds.   
  
"We`ve got to try and out-think him," Trunks stated, having become the only one who was actually thinking in a level headed manner as Zangya charged at Bojack and broke into a flurry of kicks and punches, battling back and forth towards the ground. "Screw out-thinking him," Goten replied, briskly shoving himself free of Trunks and throwing his hands up above his head.   
  
"**_HEY JACK! CATCH!!!_**" Goten screamed, just as the space above his hands suddenly lit up into a sphere of raw ki that grew from the size of a marble to the size of the Capsule Corporation mansion in under a second, expanding in size further until it was almost as the same level in size as a small city.   
  
_ "Holy shit,"_ Zangya thought, throwing her arms in front of herself and allowing Bojack to punch her down to the solid white ground before springing back on her hands and rolling away backwards, just as Bojack landed and punched that same fist into the ground with enough force to rattle it viciously. Bojack spared a glance over his shoulder at the blue shifted micro-sun that was presently bearing down on him at too high a speed to escape. Calling on memories from Hell and trying to pool off of Goten`s own abilities to create a counter, Bojack threw his hands blindly into the sphere of energy and tried to diffuse it.   
  
Diffusing, contrary to what one might think, was actually a simple concept. Cancelling ki with ki in the same manner that magic could cancel ki and vice versa. The concept was simple, sure, but actually doing it was hard enough that only a few warriors had ever figured out the technique. Goku, Raditz, Bardock and a few others were examples of warriors who had, though only Raditz had learned to do it on his own. Necessity dictated it in his case, it was either that or Nappa and Vegeta would have 'accidentally' killed him with energy attacks on more than one occasion.   
  
Bojack`s attempt was flawed though, because he was using too much ki to try and diffuse the attack he was dealing with, spreading it over too concentrated an area to do as much good as he could have.   
  
"Verpackung _Wand_!" Zangya shouted, throwing one hand to her side and then slinging it forward and up as if in a crossing uppercut. A wall of what looked like glass, perfectly shaped into a sideways rectangle flashed forward, smacking into Bojack and seeming to wrap around him. If he didn`t notice at first, he _had_ to immediately afterward as the attack detonated, breaking his attempts at diffusing Goten`s attack before he could do enough to to it to really _downgrade_ the damage it was going to do.   
  
"Did we do it?" Trunks asked, unable to really sense any ki as his friend`s attack went off, causing the entire pocket dimension to turn a near solid white as a result of the blast. "No," Goten stated, audible only because the explosion was too loud to be picked up, while his voice just seemed to punch through it.   
  
_ One - Nothing wrong with me   
Two - Nothing wrong with me   
Three - Nothing wrong with me   
Four - Nothing wrong with me   
  
_ Buu twitched. It had been two and a half minutes now since he`d murdered the human woman, and the waiting was already too much. Standing up slowly, Buu cracked it`s neck several times and then swiftly annihilated the hour glass in a single backhanded strike that vaporized half of the sand from the impact alone.   
  
"**_NO MORE WAITING! BRING HIM OUT NOW!!!_**" Buu screamed, rocking the entire Look Out briefly as an aura of pink-and-gray lit up off of the tiling, melting the cement-like material around his feet. Piccolo stepped out of the shadows shortly thereafter, heedlessly walking towards Majin Buu and passing through his aura, the edges of his clothing singing a bit as a result. "Not yet," he replied sternly. "**_I`M NOT WAITING ANYMORE! BRING HIM OUT OR EVERYONE DIES!!!_**"   
  
"_Not yet_," Piccolo replied even more sternly than before. Buu narrowed his eyes. "Are you challenging me?" The demon asked. "No. Simply declining because of a key fact," Piccolo stated, trying to buy time. "And that is?"   
  
The former Demon King closed his eyes and spoke up softly a few moments later.   
  
"There are still people living on the Earth. You haven`t killed everyone there yet," he stated somberly, opening his eyes again and narrowing them. "You deserve some more fun before you die," Piccolo stated coldly, all the while thinking apologies to the people of the Earth. "... Perhaps you`re right," Buu replied. _"I`m sorry everyone, this has to be done..."   
  
_ Buu turned away, walking to the edge of the Look Out and beginning to step around the edge, seeming to gauge everything in a slow, thorough manner. As Dende and Videl moved up behind Piccolo for whatever reason that had propelled them to leave the relative safety of the palace, the realization hit him.   
  
Piccolo winced.   
  
_ "He`s better at ki detection than I thought... He can`t **just** feel the direction, he`s picking out minimal ki signatures... One by one... He was toying with us,"_ Piccolo thought, automatically realizing just exactly what was going to happen when Buu came full circle and wound up in front of him again. This was exactly why he hung his head and turned around to the two teens behind him.   
  
"Go inside. Now. You don`t need to see this," Piccolo ordered sternly. "Whatever he`s going to do, we have a right to see," Videl replied sharply. "I already know, Piccolo," Dende said dejectedly. "There isn`t any point in trying to soften what he`s going to do."   
  
Videl quirked a brow. "What do you mean?" She asked.   
  
"You don`t want to know Videl. Be glad you can`t feel individual ki signatures the way I can," Dende stated, throwing his staff aside and dropping his hands to his sides. Buu stepped back around once again, grinning from ear to ear while raising his hand skyward.   
  
_ One - Something's got to give   
  
_ "Behold..."   
  
_ Two - Something's got to give   
  
_ "The end..."   
  
_ Three - Something's got to give   
  
_ "Of humanity," Buu finished, just as the sky went pitch black, even darker than the shadowiest of nights. Pink lighting suddenly overtook the Look Out, a corkscrewing effect as black shadow twisted along with it like some villainous candy cane striped pattern.   
  
_ Now   
** Let the bodies hit the floor   
  
**_ The former and the present Kamis stared, one in awe, the other in a dead gaze, and as the attack began, even Videl had to show amazement. If nothing else, Buu had style, right?   
  
And then it dawned on her as the streaks of pink energy whirled up into a semi-tornado, pulsing upward and then shooting straight down off of the Look Out, darting down towards the Earth below. Buu didn`t have style, he wasn`t trying to impress them.   
  
He was murdering everything on Earth.   
  
  
"What`s going on?" Yajirobe asked, stepping to the safety rail and curiously regarding the black sky, streaked with pink, as Korin set his staff down for the first time in ages. It was probably the first time in well over eight hundred years that the chubby looking little cat-god lost his knowing little grin and shook his head, tail falling limp on the stone floor. "It was nice knowing you, Yaji. You made a good student."   
  
"Eh?" Yajirobe asked. His question was answered for him a split second later as Korin let out a feline shriek and flew back, a pink bolt of ki trailing along in his wake. "**_KORI_**-" Yajirobe was dead before he could ever finish screaming out his mentor`s name.   
  
  
"**_LUNCH!!!_**" Tien screamed, diving through the onslaught of pink death with his eyes shut. He didn`t have to see her to know where Lunch was, she was lucky enough to have been able to dive out of the way of the first blast on instinct as a result of the mental fusion between Ranchi and Kushami, if nothing else it had left her able to move with her 'evil' self`s reflexes.   
  
Chaozu himself wasn`t exactly having an easy time, dodging between blast after overpowered blast, half of which seemed to arc and corkscrew out of their original courses just to try and hit him. It was more annoying than anything else, Chaozu had only just woken up from a nap after all.   
  
A decisively feminine scream echoed through the snowed-over grass field around the dome house that Tien and Lunch shared with Chaozu. Lunch`s body never even survived to hit the grass.   
  
  
Sharpener grimaced. Part of him almost wished he`d taken up the offer from Videl and company to leave for some place called the Look Out, but for the most part he wasn`t _too_ down about what was happening. Sure, people were flying up into the air, being blown apart on the ground, vaporized and impaled by an endless number of pink energy beams, but there were worse ways to die.   
  
Besides, as Sharpener grasped Erasa`s hand tightly, the thought had crossed his mind that there were far worse ways to die than being instantly destroyed in a blaze of glory. Not that it was really glory, but _still_.   
  
"Bye Sharp," Erasa said quietly. "Nice knowin` ya Erasa," Sharpener replied as a pair of blasts curved from their original course and headed straight for them.   
  
  
Hercule cringed, holding Bee close as the attack continued. Every plant in sight, even insects, it didn`t make a difference. The only thing that seemed to be saving him was dumb luck that every blast sharply curved to avoid he and the pup he was holding in a near death grip. Fireworks... It looked like a morbid set of fireworks perverted into something just as evil as Buu himself.   
  
  
Lyme winced as the people all around her started dropping like flies in a smoked up garage. She had seen death before, once. Six years ago, Cell had killed her parents. It had seemed permanent, then she`d met a crazy looking boy by the name of Gohan. She still talked to him, when she could, but she`d never forgotten how it`d felt the first time to see her parents die.   
  
The second time wasn`t as bad. Both of them screamed a bit, flew off of the ground and vanished in a pair of twin pink flashes. Mel, her five year old baby brother(there had been something of a baby boom after Cell was defeated) was resolute, displaying no hesitation as the blasts continued raining down. "It`s happening again..." Lyme finally muttered. "Only worse this time," she added with a sigh.   
  
Lyme wasn`t the type of girl to scream anymore. Instead, she would have cried a little and held her brother`s hand to comfort him in their last moments. A blast had taken that from her, and the blast that had picked her was just a bit quicker than any tear could ever fall...   
  
  
"I cannot believe this!" Pilaf lamented, angrily pounding his fists into the wall. "The one time, the _one time_ I manage to build a working energy diffusor bomb, it get`s blown up because Shuu has the utter _indecency_ to _die_ while standing next to it! **_WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PE_**-" Pilaf never finished his statement. Instead, he found himself transported to a convenient place at the back of an ever growing line.   
  
"... Well, that was an amusing thing to see before dying," Mai said to herself, shrugging in that uncaring sort of way. Fifty or sixty years of going around the block had shown her enough insanity to adopt a fairly cynical, unmoving view of events. Dying was one of them. "I always knew my end would come at the hands of an irate piece of bubblegum," she commented as a blast suddenly stopped in mid-air and streaked right for her.   
  
  
"Well... This sucks," Seventeen mumbled to himself as blast after blast rained in. Not even the trees were being spared. Artfully dodging past one of the blasts, the black haired android paused and shook his head dejectedly. "I should`ve known something like Piccolo`s attack would off me some day," he cynically thought aloud as more than a dozen of the blasts paused in their course and zinged right at him in a collapsing sphere.   
  
  
"Did you just feel that?" Goku asked with a cringe. "Virtually all life on Earth was just snuffed out... Even plant and insect life," Shin replied in a chilled tone. "Did he blow up the planet?" Goku asked in concern. "No, he intentionally killed everything on it one by one with a ki blast technique," Shin replied worriedly.   
  
"Did you hear that?" Gohan asked. "We need to hurry up!" He affirmed almost instantly. "Believe me kid, if I could do this quicker I would but you have a _lot_ of power and it`s going to take a while to draw it out. Now shut up and have some faith in your friends` abilities to survive," Bob replied harshly. "... Just hurry up," Gohan ordered. "I`m already hurrying up, whipper snapper," Bob retorted.   
  
_ Push me again   
This is the end   
  
_ Dende fell to his knees in angered sobbing as Buu`s attack ran through to completion, pounding his fists furiously into the slightly melted tiling beneath him. Even Videl seemed shaken by the whole ordeal, she had felt the ki of the world simply drop out of existence until only a little remained compared to the enormous collective signature she could feel on any ordinary day. "Oh god..."   
  
Piccolo lowered his head again, slowly, silently mourning the people he had just gotten killed to try and buy time for Trunks, Goten and Zangya. "Majin Genocide Attack," Buu announced happily, lowering his hand back to his side with a grin. "Do you like it?" He asked knowingly. "... I`ll take you to them," Piccolo muttered in reply.   
  
"No," Videl growled, literally throwing herself between Buu, Piccolo and the front entrance of the palace. "I won`t let you go any further, and if you`re a real friend of my father you won`t hurt me," she stated resolutely, even while Kami Dende continued crying and Piccolo shook his head. _"Get out of the way Videl,"_ he ordered through thought. Videl didn`t even respond.   
  
"A friend of your father I may be," Buu began, idly stepping past Piccolo with a grin. "But a friend of you, I am not," he finished, drawing back and lashing out with a single punch aimed at Videl`s face.   
  
His attack hit nothing but a darkly purple, opaque looking wall, burning violently for an instant. Videl stared in amazement as the wall faded, but she didn`t move an inch. "Magiks," Buu growled. "**_I HATE MAGIKS! DIE SATAN-SPAWN!!!_**" Buu screamed, drawing back again and literally planting his fist straight through the barrier when it returned.   
  
Videl was lucky that she died on impact. Her body vaporized into a red fog, blowing back in the wind and splattering across one of the towers around the Look Out, literally forming bullet-styled holes from the force of impact. Even Piccolo stared in blanked out disbelief at the sight.   
  
"Much better," Buu stated with a toothy grin.   
  
"You son of a bitch," Dende growled out through grit teeth. "First you murder my best friend, then you slaughter my people and then you have the sheer, unbridled _audacity_ to strike down another of my friends right in front of me?!" He demanded, getting right back up off of the ground and turning to face Majin Buu. Everything had changed about the normally placid, calm youth who had taken the mantle of Kami at the age of ten, if only because he was surrounded by an aura of lightning and his eyes had become blank slates of golden rage.   
  
"You all seem to be in quite a hurry to die," Buu stated. Piccolo turned to face his student with a shred of contempt, if Dende died then so would the last hope for the Earth`s people.   
  
"You..."   
  
"Well? What are you going to do? Stand there and cry at me?" Buu asked, taking note of the fact that Dende was still sobbing. The Namek only flared his nostrils before speaking up.   
  
"**_GET THE HELL OFF MY PLANET YOU BASTARD!!!_**"   
  
Even Piccolo was taken aback as Buu let out a howl and flew back, liquifying in a particularly grotesque fashion while flying over the edge of the Look Out and straight out into deep space. "You idiot!" Piccolo chastised after regaining his senses. "It had to be done," Dende growled, eyes fading back to their normal state, though still obviously watering at the edges. "He killed them... **_HE KILLED THEM ALL!_**" The younger Namek thrashed, only to find himself silenced harshly as Piccolo put his lights out, decking the young Kami in the face and knocking him unconcious.   
  
"You`ll thank me someday," Piccolo stated, grabbing Dende by the shoulder before he could finish losing his footing, then calling up the younger Namek`s staff and literally stabbing it into his student`s stomach before roughly throwing Dende off in the opposite direction that Dende had blasted Buu in. With any luck, unconciousness and the fall would help hide Dende`s ki signature until Buu lost interest.   
  
And Piccolo had a funny feeling that Dende was going to survive that fall regardless of how hard he was thrown.   
  
_ Skin against skin, blood and bone   
  
_ Zangya was fast, Bojack was faster. The fiery haired giant smashed his former lover brutally into the ground, rolling off of her in a speedy manner and diving into the air on reflex.   
  
_ You're all by yourself but you're not alone   
  
_ Trunks, bloodied from an earlier attack, dodged out of the way in a hurry, sweeping his small leg into the lowest region of his far larger opponent`s back, causing Bojack to grunt in discomfort more than real pain before outright decking the boy in the middle of the face.   
  
_ You wanted in - now you're here   
  
_ Trunks flew back, and Goten again returned the favor from earlier, appearing behind his friend and catching Trunks with a swinging movement before executing a quick Zanzoken out of the way, dodging Bojack`s killing pair of super blasts as a result. The shots smashed into the ground though, curving upward shortly before and then corkscrewing right back down, causing a thermonuclear-level explosion that rattled the entire area of the Room of Spirit and Time.   
  
_ Driven by hate, consumed by fear   
  
_ When Goten reappeared next to Zangya, she was already getting up on her own. More than anything, she was a soldier, and she wasn`t about to be upstaged in the endurance game by two kids who were both only half as strong as she was, at best. Even after hours(in the time of the Room that is) of combat, Zangya still had a lot of life left in her.   
  
Life that, along with Goten and Trunks, Bojack was determined to end.   
  
_ Let the bodies hit the floor   
  
_ "Jack is stronger than he acts," Goten managed to think aloud, grabbing a hold of Zangya and blurring out again. Despite having fought Bojack the hardest and the most, and taking the most damage overall, he was probably the only one truly holding his own in the three-on-one battle to the death.   
  
Not that such a thing meant very much. Bojack was winning, it was obvious.   
  
How were they going to manage to stop him and actually get time to train? Would they at all?   
  
"Trunks," Goten voiced as the trio reappeared. "What?" The other boy replied hazily, floating freely under his own power as Goten let go of Zangya and spoke up again. "Are you thinking what I`m thinking?" He asked, throwing his hands to the side. "... Yeah," Trunks answered with a dizzied, mirroring his younger comrade`s movements to a tee as Zangya drifted down and forward a bit under her own power.   
  
"I`ll buy time, just hurry up," she ordered.   
  
"Just don`t get killed," both boys ordered sternly. Zangya smirked. "I won`t."   
  
"Good luck Aunt Zan," Goten and Trunks both said with firm nods. Zangya only tensed up, watching as Bojack began his approach. "Here`s hoping I won`t need it..."   
  


_ End Part Twenty-Two  
  


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_

**Author`s Note:** Buha. Cliffy again, AND I killed Videl! Without even giving her a truly meaningful, significant end! HAHAHAHA! *Promptly lynched by G/V zealots.*  
  
**CysticLOL17:** Yeah. I delighted in holding that one over people`s heads since Forgotten. Only two people managed to figure it out before this without me blatantly pointing it out to them! *Cackle.* So obvious it`s painful, eh? *Cackle.* Hopefully you at least feel some annoyance at me :P  
  
**diamondgirl:** *Stomps on undead zombie mice.* NEVER! YOU SHALL NEVER DEFEAT MEH!  
  
**Professor Authordude:** Heh heh... **BOB!** :D  
  
**shadowwolf 75:** Yeah, `bout time I pulled that twist out of wherever I was hiding it, eh?  
  
That`s all for now folks, enjoy, leave a review and see ya next time!  
  
Sh33p out. 


	24. Tear Away

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  
**

Hybrid Theory: Generations

**_  
Tear Away   
  
  
  
_ While it`s a basic fact of life that many relationships can and do end, it`s generally accepted that most normal couples at least try to end things on a good-or-at-least-nonviolent note.   
  
This was the case for normal relationships. For Zangya and Bojack, two former star crossed lovers in their own right, this dynamic was completely changed. Not only were they interested only in tearing one another limb from limb, they had gotten to the point to do so after a six year long wait. During the wait, Bojack had been dead, bound by some sick little prank of the gods to give up half of his soul to someone else, fated by the ironic strings of destiny that the someone he had to give himself up to just _happened_ to be the younger brother of the demi-saiyan who had ruthlessly killed him twice in a row.   
  
But now, for whatever reason, the two were duking it out, and for some twisted reason or another, Bojack had his own form again. He was no longer Goten`s would-be puppeteer, he no longer existed in such a way that he could only interact with Goten and he was finally free to do what he wanted.   
  
And what he wanted was to kill Zangya, Trunks and his former(?) host, Son Goten.   
  
Unfortunately for his plans and desires though...   
  
"**_ZEICHENKETTE LEEREN!!!_**"   
  
None of them were really going along with it quite like he had wanted.   
  
Bojack dove down through the high-speed winds whipping through the dimension, landing with a crashing pair of thuds as Zangya`s strings of energy coursed by, missing him completely. The scenery seemed to keep changing, it had gone from blank slate to city-like area to a place filled with so many strange looking hour glass contraptions that he couldn`t really take it all in. Even the people kept changing.   
  
In Goten, Trunks and Zangya`s eyes, Bojack seemed to infrequently change form to what Goten saw him as prior to coming into the Room. In Bojack`s eyes, Zangya kept changing into the clothing she`d worn during the first day they`d arrived on Earth while Goten and Trunks both seemed to age and grow younger. Trunks seemed to become the alternate future version of himself and Goten seemed to change into a different douji, grow about ten years and take on a different hairstyle.   
  
The Room was really just playing with them the way it did everyone who came in for more than a few hours tops, but it had effected the battle in such a way that it had offset Bojack`s advantage in power, speed, resilience and strength enough to allow the others just to survive against him.   
  
Zangya sped in, Bojack tilted out of the way and the woman soon had herself all but impaled on Bojack`s knee, halted in place before being smacked roughly across the face and through what materialized into the shape of an asiatic seeming royal estate, continuing on for several seconds before Bojack saw the tallest building crash down in a burning heap.   
  
Turning his attentions skyward with a growl, Bojack powered up.   
  
_ I'm tearing away  
Pieces are falling I can't seem to make them stay  
You run away  
Faster and faster you can't seem to get away   
  
_ "_Fu_!"   
  
"**_NO YOU DON`T!_**" Bojack howled, throwing a pair of blasts straight up at the boys. Goten blurred out and Trunks dodged to the side, allowing the shots to streak by at a furious rate before spinning out of control and impacting somewhere off in the extreme distance. "No Fusion today, kiddies," Bojack chastised, suddenly launching off of the ground in a blur of movement. He came to a perfect stop in front of Trunks, only to find his attack cut off by the boy`s readied hands, which had already begun to glow just before the larger fighter had taken off.   
  
"Have a nice fall!" Trunks quipped, sending off a number of blasts straight into Bojack`s face and, more specifically, into his mouth and nose. The enormous green fighter rattled back, but refused to fall down as Trunks had hoped.   
  
Until Goten reappeared, anyway. The bloodied, red headed boy grabbed his former tormentor by the ankle and roughly threw him straight down, causing a huge explosion as Bojack seemed to slam through the roof of skyscraper and travel straight down to basement level as a result. "Nice toss," Trunks commented with a wheeze. "I`ve done better," Goten replied. "Wanna try and finish him now?" Trunks asked. Goten quietly drew his hands to his side with a nod. "Ka..."   
  
Taking the cue for what it was, Trunks drew his own hands back and above his head, seeming to curl his entire body into making ready for the attack. "Gal..." In unison, the boys seemed to take on new auras, a purple sheen sparking up all around Trunks, matched by a bluish-red glow lighting up around Goten. "... Me..." "... Lic..." "Ha..."   
  
The glowing lightshow promptly took a new turn as the boys seem became little more than dark outlines surrounded by fires that were the colors of their auras, combining in a brilliantly bright, flashing display of ki, resembling a pulsating star more than anything else. "... Me..." "Gun..."   
  
With a deafening roar, the aura effect expanded rapidly, and winds that shouldn`t have been there picked up into existence with a vengeance, just as the two boys` voices shattered into hearing range, overtaking even the roar of their combined ki. _  
  
Break!   
  
_ "**_HA!!!_**" "**_FIRE!!!_**"   
  
_ Hope there's a reason  
For questions unanswered  
I just don't see everything  
  
_ Piccolo tensed anxiously. Thirteen seconds ago he`d managed to fling Dende out of harm`s way after his student all but went ballistic and then some on Majin Buu. Piccolo, to an extent, actually felt that the other Namek might have had the potential to tear Buu down to be honest, unfortunately though it was a risk he and the Earth couldn`t afford. Dende`s hidden power stretched at least far enough to put both the current and previous Namekian elders to shame, but he wasn`t a fighter.   
  
Guru had three offspring that he considered pre-ordained for greatness, one was Kattatsu, who ended up giving rise to greatness in his own right with the original Piccolo. The second was Nail, the last of the True Warrior Nameks for the foreseeable future, and the third and final was also his last personal child, Dende. Each of them had power beyond normal comprehension to some extent or another, Kattatsu`s was the weakest because his power was through his son, the first Piccolo. Nail was the Namekian equivelent of a Legendary Super Saiyan, with the proper training he would have been able to attain the same kind of power warriors like Vegeta strived for with about half as much effort.   
  
Dende though, he was the most powerful. Guru had always intended, even planned, that after he passed on, Muuri would take his place, but Muuri had known the planning extended down to Dende. Dende was literally the most powerful Namek alive, power offset and increased by his station as the Earth`s Kami and furthered by a growing talent with magiks.   
  
That was why Piccolo was willing to give thought that Dende could have taken Buu, until another thing entered his mind. Guru wasn`t dumb, he didn`t want a warrior leading his people when the Nameks were peaceful by nature, even the True Warriors abhored having to fight. As such, Dende could only draw out his fullest power through age and training, desperate need or devestating grief, and in the latter pair of options, it wouldn`t last long enough to put down Buu.   
  
The former Kami smiled grimly in spite of himself. He was raising a good successor, assuming they all lived to see him fully grow into his role.   
  
_ "He just stopped,"_ Piccolo thought to himself, feeling Majin Buu`s ki signature stop moving entirely. _"Dende must have knocked the hell out of him... He`s all the way out past Mars,"_ Piccolo mused. It was almost funny how the single most villainous creature he`d ever seen had been punked out by an underdeveloped Namekian runt who shouldn`t have even known how to fight.   
  
Almost.   
  
_ "And now he`s on his way back... Fast."   
  
_ Piccolo almost staggered under the force of Buu`s aura as the muscular demon returned in a blur of candied pink, shattering several dozen of the tiles near the pair, hovering about ten feet up in the air away from Piccolo. "Where did he go?" The pink demon sneered angrily. "I killed him," Piccolo lied with Oscar-worthy skills. "Liar," Buu growled. "Even if I was lying Buu, you wouldn`t know it," Piccolo grinned. "Besides, you need me to find your challenger. You can`t sense him because he`s in another dimension, that means only I know the way with Dende gone," Piccolo stated, covering his own survival and making sure to try and further buy time for those in the Room.   
  
"Perhaps."   
  
"That`s what I thought," Piccolo replied. "And perhaps you`re just attempting to save your own skin..."   
  
"If you intend to kill me, do it now. I don`t care because you`ll just be costing yourself the best fight you`ll ever have," Piccolo bluffed. Buu rose a hand up in reply, gingerly grabbing the Namek by the forehead and beginning to squeeze. "I think I will."   
  
"Then hurry up and do it."   
  
"Now why hurry? I`d much rather hear you scream."   
  
"I wouldn`t scream either way."   
  
"Take me to them then," Buu ordered, removing his hand and lowering it to his side.   
  
"Fi-" Piccolo was interrupted when a plastic bottle - two liter in size - bounced off of his forehead and landed between he and Buu, perfectly aimed at the pink demon even after the rebound. "**_MAFUBA!!!_**"   
  
In all of three seconds it was over. Master Roshi toppled onto his stomach with a thud, laughing for a few seconds before everything abruptly stopped. Buu only let out a grunt and vanished in a twisting mixture of yellow and green, jammed into the bottle before a cap somehow twisted into place on it.   
  
"... You`re kidding me," Piccolo muttered in disbelief as Buu, currently compressed into a slightly visible pink clumb in the bottle, flailed around. "... One of these days, something believable is going to happen," he muttered again, staring down at the bottle and deciding to bide his time. _"I`m beginning to wonder whether or not they`ve got some lengthy plan made to try and buy the kids time to finish their training,"_ he mused, watching the bottle bounce around violently. For all of his strength, Buu was still vulnerable to the relatively simple magiks inherent to a Mafuba-enchanted bottle or jar.   
  
_ "Whatever it is, I suppose it`s going to pay off a bit at least,"_ he thought, glancing over at the remaining figures in the doorway. Nobody was willing to touch Roshi`s downed body.   
  
_ Yes I'm inside you  
Tell me how does it feel to feel like this  
Just like I do  
  
_ Bojack angrily walked out of the enormous monstrosity of a smoke cloud that had resulted from Trunks and Goten`s combined attack. He had a few singe marks on him, in addition to the other light injuries he`d taken over the course of this overly drawn out battle, but he was otherwise unharmed. It was probably due to the natural tolerance he had for pain, further increased by the envoked effects of the gems. Even though he didn`t have his anymore, the Room seemed to enjoy the idea of Bojack being in his ascended form.   
  
That wasn`t a good thing for Trunks and Goten. The two boys were crouched down, hidden in the bottom layers of the smoke, just trying to avoid coughing while regaining their strength. Bojack wasn`t phased by the severe lack of oxygen but both of the boys were, and having to concentrate on hiding their ki didn`t make things any easier.   
  
"Come on out!" Bojack called out.   
  
"Wanna try Fusion again?" Trunks asked quietly. "Not yet, if we try now he`ll just interrupt us..."   
  
"Not like Zangya`s gonna hold `im off very well at this rate," Trunks grumbled. "Not her fault he knocked her ou-" "**_OW!!!_**" Both boys watched as Bojack flew overhead, hands clasped tightly around his groin, balled up into a fetal position. "... Okay, so maybe she _can_ hold him off," Trunks corrected himself, getting up to his feet and dusting himself off. "Yep," Goten agreed sagely, following suit a few seconds later as an annoyed looking Zangya walked into view, one of the shoulder straps and part of the chest plating missing from her armor while the spandex-like blue material beneath it looked scorched severely.   
  
Not to mention a bit crumpled as if someone had given it a squeeze...   
  
"I don`t even wanna know," Trunks said with cynicism far beyond his years. "Good, because I`m not saying anything," Zangya replied. "I`m going to hold him off this time, do the Fusion dance or we`ll all die," Zangya calmly stated, walking forward and spreading her arms out as a glassy blue tint began to rise up through the knee-high smoke around her. "Well, when ya put it like that..."   
  
"Oh Bojack, _honey_!" Zangya called out, pooling raw ki up into her hands as that glow became more intense, rushing until it formed into what looked like an aura of sparkling, colored glass. "What is it now, Bimbo?" Bojack asked, voice still more than just a bit off from the kick to the groin. "I wonder how stumpy you`ll be after that kick, hm?"   
  
"**_THAT ISN`T FUNNY!_**"   
  
"Mmmhm. What`s wrong, can`t the great _dic_tator get it up now that li`l ol` Zan`s _busted_ his _chops_?" Zangya asked, hair now rising up and flapping in the general direction of the winds. "I`m gonna make you eat those words, bitch," Bojack growled, finally regaining his composure and starting to walk forward. "Is that so?" Zangya asked. "Yes," Bojack snarled. "How quaint."   
  
"Time to d-" "Oh look, a penny!" Zangya shouted, gleefully interrupting Bojack. "... W-" "You really have issues Bo`, know that? I mean... Seriously, a little kid?" Zangya asked, interrupting him again. "... I di-" "Fa la la la la la," Zangya happily sang, gaining a little bit of a bounce in her steps. Bojack twitched. "Fine, be tha-" "I can`t hear you!" Zangya shouted, finally stopping at around fifty feet from Bojack. "... _I hate it when you do th_-" "**_KRISTALLWELLE!!!_**"   
  
Bojack only barely managed to get out a scream of defiant annoyedness as the wave of near see-through heavenly blue light slammed into him, backed up by an ever-tightening beam. Zangya`s hands were set forward now in a posture not unlike Piccolo`s Chou Bakuretsumaha, though Zangya`s attack definately had a lot more visual effect to it than a golden fireball the size of a small island.   
  
As the seconds went on, the roar of the attack increased a dozen fold, and Zangya almost faltered back as a result of the force of her own attack. Shockwaves spread out from her very aura, ringing the attack that Bojack had vanished into as it forced him along.   
  
And then it stopped.   
  
Zangya let out a wheeze and collapsed to one knee, breathing hard as the attack ended, watching it finally tear Bojack off of his feet and send him careening along with it off into the colorless distance, hitting somewhere far and away before detonating with a uniquely see-through explosion tinted with dots of light that ran through every visible and invisible frequency known to exist. Winds tore off from the base of the explosion, pushing Zangya back almost a foot before she allowed herself to fall over backwards, laughing exhaustedly.   
  
"Suck on that you big green son of a bitch," she grinned, rolling her eyes back and letting out another exhausted laugh.   
  
She of course knew that Bojack wasn`t dead but he was likely in pain by now, if nothing else. That was enough for Zangya though, as long as he was hurting badly then he didn`t need to die because she`d already won.   
  
"**_HA!!!_**" Sounded in the distance, and the former villainess glanced up and over the ground at the twisting smoke curled around two vanishing forms, soon expelled into nothingness by the sheer force of a golden explosion.   
  
_ Do I really want this  
Sometimes I scare myself   
I just can't let it go  
  
_ Zangya let out a scream and slid forward, only to halt instantly and find herself plucked off of the ground by her right foot, blood trickling down from her mouth and onto her forehead due to the awkwardness of her position. "That wasn`t very nice," Bojack growled, now having been singed a near solid black with several patches of his hair missing and one of his eyes clenched shut. "Maybe, but it was worth it," Zangya said with a contemptful little grin before throwing her arms back and then hammering them up into Bojack`s chin. For her effort, she didn`t knock herself loose but she at least caused him to throw his head back in annoyance and discomfort.   
  
"Besides, you really should see yourself right now," she said with another grin, drawing her free leg back and roughly twisting around to crash it into Bojack`s cheek, sending his head sideways as a result. A bit of the giant`s purple blood stained her white boot as a result but he did nothing more than growl. "I`m going to enjoy this," Bojack stated, lowering his head back down and lifting Zangya up as far as he could, until she was upside down but still at eye level with him.   
  
Bojack licked his lips menacingly.   
  
Zangya only smirked.   
  
"I take it you`re looking forward to it too, eh?" He asked pervertedly. "Oh, that? Nah, besides... What`s to look forward to, eh, Stumpy?" Zangya asked. Bojack grit his teeth hard enough to cause an audible popping sound to occur within his jaw. "I`m going to doubly enjoy this then," he growled, only to find two fingers jabbing roughly into his eyes.   
  
The gigantic mass murderer staggered back with a howl while Zangya dropped down, catching herself in a handspring and curling her entire body up before straightening. Both of her feet _coincidentally_ wound up finding Bojack`s groin. Again.   
  
"**_EEYARGH!_**" Bojack wretched, almost vomitting from the force of the blow whilst Zangya rolled away, cackling like a madwoman. "That`s what I was looking forward to, Stumpo!" She called out exhaustedly before flopping back onto her side and waiting with a maliciously enthusiastic grin plastered all over her face.   
  
_ Can you believe it  
Everything happens for reasons  
I just don't know  
  
_ Bojack looked up with a twitching eye a few moments later, his other, already injured eye clenched shut even tighter than before. Purple could be seen oozing from within as he started to limp towards the downed Zangya, one hand clutching his groin. "Now I`m going to-" "Die like the idiot you are," a new voice/s interrupted. Bojack turned to face the source only to find a boot slammed into the side of his face all over again, sending the huge warrior tumbling along awkwardly on the ground while a boy in strange clothing touched down, smirking a bit brashly but looking serious to the extreme.   
  
He was a perfect combination of the features of Goten and Trunks, midway in size between them, midway in appearance between them with eyes that favored Goten but a build that had Trunks written all over it. The hair was shocked up and back, mostly black streaked with lavender, like he was a Super Saiyan in his normal state. His clothing was the part that struck Zangya as strange, it was almost similar to Majin Buu but still passively different at the same time.   
  
"Take a breather, Zangya. I`ll take it from here," the boy stated seriously.   
  
Zangya gave a nod and propped herself up on one elbow, if only to watch Bojack die. Again. This was actually starting to become a pretty amusing tradition to her.   
  
_ I don't care about anyone else but me  
I don't care about anyone  
I don't care about anyone else but me  
I don't care about anyone or anything but me   
  
_ "Who the hell are you?!" Bojack bit out after climbing back up to his feet with anger in his eyes. In a flare of gold and crimson, the boy changed, an aura that blended gold and red fires together lighting up around him, the black parts of his hair shifting to red and the lavender streaking to gold, his eyes becoming teal rimmed with that same red as his aura and his eyebrows taking on a streak of red and gold that made it near impossible to tell which was what color.   
  
But he only grinned. "_We_ are Gotenks," the boy stated, slowly walking forward, the sheer weight of the flames around him almost knocking Bojack and Zangya both back. "_You_," the boy paused, suddenly blurring straight forward.   
  
_ God damn I love me   
  
_ Bojack gasped and faltered forward, the small of his back literally exploding into a sideways angled purple guyser with the very front portion of Gotenks` fist showed through the mess. "Not again..."   
  
"Are about to die," Gotenks stated, hovering off of the ground to make the strike. The Fusion solidly tore his arm back out from the same hole it had made, briskly smacking Bojack up into the air and speaking up with two voices, exactly as it had the first time. "At least have the decency to stay that way this time," Gotenks said with audible annoyance, drawing his hand up and taking aim.   
  
"Big Bang Attack," the boy said, not yelling, not even screaming out the attack`s name but just mundanely announcing it as if it was the plainest thing on Earth. In a blinding double flash, the connection between half of Gotenks and all of Bojack was severed all but permanently, and to the victor went the spoils. As the pulsating ball of energy consumed him, Bojack`s memories and experience, as well as the totality of his power, went right into Gotenks - or more particularly, right into the half of Gotenks that had given re-birth to Bojack in the first place, causing the Fusion to growl a little in discomfort.   
  
The redness faded and the fighting was over. The actual training would start as soon as the three of them recovered, but Gotenks had the sinking feeling that it would be a little while.   
  
That was okay though. Nothing some food and sleep wouldn`t fix.   
  


_ End Part Twenty-Three  
  


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_

**Author`s Note:** Behold... The power of Fusion. *Cheese commercial music plays.*  
  
**CysticLOL17:** Yeah. That kind of annoyed me that they never showed any of the other characters dying when Buu did the Genocide Attack. And yeah, Buu`s killing Videl the way he did seemed a more fitting end than just becoming candy, yanno? As for Dende... Well...Let`s just say I`m not done with the little string bean just yet >_>  
  
**cobra:** You`re not the only one. Like I said, only two people seem to have figured it out without me telling them.  
  
Hope I didn`t keep ya waiting too long :P I`ll be updating in three days more often from now on, so yanno, but don`t worry, no longer than that. I may be mean but I`m not gonna keep you all waiting for a month and a half like some authors I`ve seen...  
  
Sh33p out, enjoy, review and see ya next time!  
  



	25. Youth of the Nation

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


**Hybrid Theory: Generations   
**_Youth of the Nation   
  
  
  
_

Piccolo sighed to himself, watching the two liter-sized bottle bounce around. Roshi`s gambit had paid off, it had bought Zangya and the boys more time, but it was probably going to render Majin Buu all the less patient as a result. Seconds further passed and the bottle began to strain. Even though the magiks weren`t exactly strong, the very nature of Buu made it a trial to get through them. Piccolo himself seriously doubted his own abilities to counter a Mafuba from inside a Denshi Jar or - as Roshi had done - a plastic bottle, but Buu was having twice as much trouble.   
  
The bottle strained a bit more.   
  
And then it exploded.   
  
Buu stood frothing at the mouth, glaring nuclear bombs at Roshi`s body before screaming at it. Roshi was lucky he was already dead, his body vaporized in a flash of pink so bright that it obscured the sunlight.   
  
"Are you ready now?" Piccolo asked calmly. "**_I`LL KILL EVERYONE!!!_**" Buu screamed, flailing around angrily and almost tearing Piccolo`s head in two as a result. "You can kill us after your fight. Come on," he ordered, slowly walking past Buu and pausing. It wasn`t because he was waiting on Buu for Buu`s sake, it was because waiting bought more time.   
  
Goku was good at buying time. Krillin was better. Yamcha, Zangya, Tien and Chaozu weren`t that grand and Gohan was about even with them but Piccolo?   
  
Piccolo was the king of borrowing time and mysteriously forgetting to bring it back. He could draw Buu on as long as was possible, believably or unbelievably, and he intended to do just that. "Are you coming?"   
  
"**_HURRY UP!!!_**"   
  
"I`ll take that as a yes," Piccolo replied, turning towards the palace and slowly walking to the door with an irate Majin Buu not a step behind. Upon arriving at the door though, the pair were forced to stop. Not because the door was shut, not because someone was making an attack but for a more unlikely reason than all that.   
  
Bulma had stepped in the way. She wasn`t moving. _  
  
"ChiChi either rubbed off on her or some motherly instinct is finally showing,"_ Piccolo thought bemusedly as Bulma threw her hands out to either side of the door frame. "Not one step further," she said with grim determination. "Over your dead body, right?" Buu growled.   
  
_ Last day of the rest of my life   
I wish I would've known   
Cause I didn't kiss my mama goodbye   
I didn't tell her that I loved her and how much I care   
Or thank my pops for all the talks   
And all the wisdom he shared   
  
_ "Exactly."   
  
Buu bared his fangs in a grin and roughly shoved Piccolo out of the way. The Namek only nodded to Bulma and grimaced.   
  
_ "I guess I`ll get the chance to have that talk with Mom and Dad after all..."   
  
Unaware, I just did what I always do   
Everyday, the same routine   
Before I skate off to school   
  
_ "_**POP!!!**_" Buu squealed.   
  
_ But who knew that this day wasn't like the rest   
Instead of taking a test   
I took two to the chest   
  
_ Bulma`s remains became a splatter of red and orange on the floor. Buu cracked his neck at an impossible angle to either side, then twisted his head around while tilting it upside down to get a look at Piccolo, who was wiping Bulma`s blood from his cloak. "That was fun," Buu said with a guttural chuckle. "There`s more where that came from," Piccolo growled, taking the lead again and calmly resuming his snail`s pacing.   
  
Call me blind, but I didn't see it coming   
Everybody was running   
But I couldn't hear nothing   
  
"This is utterly insane," Krillin said, wiping one of his eyes. "Bulma wasn`t the nicest person but for god`s sake, did she have to go and try to be a hero too?" He asked. "I don`t know. I don`t like this anymore than you do but there isn`t much we can do to help other than get ourselves killed to buy time and I don`t think that was her goal," Yamcha replied. He was about as moved as Krillin, though he was a bit more hard around the edges since he didn`t show it.   
  
"Well... What now?" Juu asked, cradling Marron and keeping the girl from seeing the grizzly sight before them. The Ox King sat a few feet away, staring at his feet in the same manner he had been doing since his daughter had been killed. "... Who wants to delay Buu?" Yamcha asked regretfully. He knew what the question meant. Oolong gulped hard. Puar just shrugged and the Ox King looked up. "I will. At least that way I can see ChiChi and Gohan and Goku again," he said with a surprisingly empty tone of voice.   
  
"That`s two. Anyone else?"   
  
"I`ll go," Puar said. "I`ve got five lives left to use so I may as well put them down for a good cause, right?" She asked. "Don`t even think I`m gonna let _you_ upstage _me_," Oolong cut in with a snort. "I don`t like bein` a hero but if I`m gonna die anyway it may as well be for something worth a damn."   
  
"That`s four."   
  
No one else offered. Krillin simply looked up at Juuhachigou with a shake of the head. "I would Yamcha, but I`ve already died and been brought back on each set of Dragonballs before... I don`t know if I could be revived on either again so..." Juu on the other hand, was utterly silent. She was the only one nobody would have accepted even if she`d said yes to begin with. Popo was also silent.   
  
Yamcha nodded. "I understand, don`t worry about it," the former bandit ordered. "G`luck Yam-head," Krillin said. "You too Nut-face," Yamcha replied with a stoic smirk. "Shall we?" He asked. Puar and Oolong nodded, the Ox King was already on his way out the door.   
  
_ Except gun blasts, it happened so fast   
I don't really know this kid   
Even though I sit by him in class   
  
_ "Hi-ya! Ya! Ya, ya, ya, ya!" Goten yelled, a different 'ya' with each kick he threw. Even though the boy was bandaged up still, even though he`d spent the past days living on nothing but rice and even though he was still marred with healing injuries of several varieties, he refused to sit back on his haunches. Trunks tried to share his enthusiasm but it wasn`t easy.   
  
Both boys hadn`t gotten out of the battle scott-free. They were hurting with every kick and punch they threw but they weren`t giving in. Pain was a cheerleader and despair was a groaning sports commentator, their goal was all that mattered and all that stood between them was the last yard line, which happened to be blocked off by a fifty foot high concrete, steel reinforced wall.   
  
Loaded with machine guns.   
  
Goten groaned tiredly and paused for all of a second, while Trunks froze in the middle of a kick, shifting his gaze to the other boy. He didn`t have Goten`s dedication for this sort of thing, Trunks just wanted the chance to heal but Goten? Goten was going to train even if you broke his back. Trunks was only training with him for two reasons, the first being comradery and the second being pride. It was bad enough that Goten`s strength could now willingly eclipse his own after absorbing Bojack`s power, the other boy had gained all of his demon`s skills too.   
  
Not to mention some of his memories. Most of which were a bit... Unsettling.   
  
Trunks was probably training with twice the fervor just to try and close the gap and Goten was _still_ outpacing him, it was a sickening repeat of Goku and Vegeta`s fued, the sins of the fathers playing themselves out to punish the sons.   
  
And neither boy gave enough of a damn to even realize it. There wasn`t even a rivalry either, both knew what was at stake. Zangya refused to let them forget, and even if she herself had the sanity to keep from training to let her wounds heal, she wasn`t going to try and stop them. It was a futile effort so the only thing to do was to try and keep them from killing themselves.   
  
At present, she sat on the steps of the house that held the door to reality, watching the boys with a tinge of regret and envy. She wasn`t regretful over Bojack`s death in the least, she was laughing her head off the entire time he`d been dying, but she was regretful over the fact she wasn`t willing to make herself all but crippled to get a bit stronger. The envy came with the regret that she wasn`t willing to all but die for a smidget of strength but what she lacked in strength she was determined to make up for in technique.   
  
The change she was influencing in both boys` fighting styles was already becoming apparent, though it wasn`t that big. They had just become more accustomed to doing things with more variety to them. They didn`t focus on streams of endless punches and kicks and blasts now, they varied things up.   
  
"Kame Hame Ha!"   
  
"Final Flash!"   
  
An explosion rang through the distance as winter came with a roar, ice shattering up out of the ground into jagged pillars all around them.   
  
But the training continued.   
  
_ Maybe this kid was reaching out for love   
Or maybe for a moment   
He forgot who he was   
Or maybe this kid just wanted to be hugged   
Whatever it was   
I know it's because   
  
_ Piccolo stopped and stared briefly. "That`s odd," he said quietly. Buu grunted and continued on until it stopped at the wall. "It`s a dead end," he growled. "Do you _really_ know the way?" He asked furiously. "Yes, I do," Piccolo replied, somehow managing to keep his cool in the face of an irate Majin Buu. "It should be right through here..."   
  
Buu pulled his arm back and lashed out. In a blast of red, the wall vanished, becoming fresh paint on the walls to reveal an 1800s-era artillery cannon, which promptly opened fire. It`s first shot hit Buu right in the face and bounced off, going back into the cannon and causing it to explode only to have it reform with an imploding sort of effect to reveal a dazed looking Puar. "One down," the small cat muttered before jumping forward, twisting sideways into a flip and shape changing into a gigantic saw blade.   
  
Buu simply spat a blast of ki into the blade. Again, Puar exploded and reformed, looking all the more dazed now. She was 70 years old, having gone through four lives from old age by now - discounting the life she had just lost and the few she was about to lose again. "Two down..."   
  
"Three," Buu corrected, banging it`s head forward and smacking Puar across the cheek. It was a grizzly sight to watch the shapeshifter`s small form fling back into a wall after her head had been severed in half down to the neck, but again she reformed and again got back up, barely able to even hobble forward before jumping into the air and staying there.   
  
"Don`t you ever die?" Buu growled ferally. "Too often for my tastes," Puar replied, diving forward and shapeshifting one last time.   
  
Into a time bomb.   
  
The device angrily slid into Buu`s mouth somehow and a second later, detonated, getting little more than a belch from the muscular demon, who promptly shook it out. "Shall we continue?" He ordered more than asked. Piccolo merely narrowed his eyes and stepped onward.   
  
Puar and Oolong were both dead. Piccolo could tell they weren`t going to be the last.   
  
_ We are, we are, the youth of the nation  
We are, we are, the youth of the nation  
  
_ "Fu..."   
  
"... _Sion_..."   
  
"**_HA!!!_**"   
  
_ Little Suzy, she was only twelve   
She was given the world   
With every chance to excel   
  
_ "Well, that sucked," Videl commented dryly. "Ow..." Bulma groaned, though her body wasn`t long before vanishing into nothing more than a sugarpuff-looking fireball, which hovered about two feet off of the ground. ChiChi had been waiting for them at the back of the line. It wasn`t because she was desperate or afraid, it was because she wanted to be there to greet Goten if he was killed. An unsettling thought really, but ChiChi preferred that if she were to face Judgement, she`d do it after making sure her family was alright.   
  
As 'alright' as the dead can be, anyway.   
  
"I`m guessing Buu killed you too, huh?" ChiChi asked dully. "Pretty much," Videl replied, glancing to her side and expecting to see Bulma. "... Where did Bulma go?" She asked. "She`s standing beside you. Only the warriors, former warriors and people who`ve done great things really get to keep their bodies," ChiChi pointed out. "... I did great things!" Bulma defended annoyedly, her sugarpuff-shaped fireball body bouncing around grumpily for emphasis. "Name `em."   
  
"I uh... I gave birth to Trunks, I`m Vegeta`s common-law wife and I built things that`ve saved the world..."   
  
"None of those are direct, Bulma," ChiChi commented with vaguely masked amusement. "... Grand. Playmate to a puffy blue ball of fire... This just isn`t my day," Bulma groaned. "Well, at least we died for a good cause," Videl said with a shrug. After the first few minutes, it really wasn`t _that_ bad...   
  
Either that or the full shock of being dead hadn`t hit her.   
  
"My head," a new voice groaned as two small, knee-high figures dropped out from overhead, landing with twin thuds on the ground. "Can it Oolong, you didn`t have to die _five_ times," Puar growled. "Ain`t my fault you idiots take the 'nine lives' myth and twist it into reality," Oolong grunted cryptically, dusting himself off. "... If you weren`t dead, I`d kill you," Puar muttered. "Then you`d be stuck here alone for eternity whilst I, the great Oolong, move on to a new life," Oolong reminded with a mock grin. Puar was unamused.   
  
"I honestly think I`d prefer that..."   
  
"So, I take it that we went straight to Hell, huh?" Oolong asked, glancing from side to side. "Not likely, any Hell you get sent to is probably going to be loaded with lots of gay porn and even more bacon," Puar replied sardonically. "Oh gee, feel the love..."   
  
"I guess Buu got you two too, huh?" Videl asked, crouching down to meet the two shapeshifters at eye level, only to watch them both turn into the same kind of sugarpuff-shaped fireballs as Bulma. Puar briefly sighed and then turned back into her normal self with a shrug. "At least I can be my old self for more than five minutes," she commented happily. "... Ah shyaddap."   
  
"Mind if we wait for Yamcha and the others with you guys?" Puar asked. "Don`t see anyone telling you to hurry up," ChiChi commented, pointing at the miles-long line that stretched from their current location out as far as the eye could see to a gigantic palace a good distance away. "... Eheh... Oy..." Oolong twitched.   
  
"This is just one of those days," Puar commented, reaching under the safety railing of their waiting area, tearing off a chunk of the cloud layer below and setting it down before plopping onto it like a pillow. "... How the heck did you do that?" Oolong asked. "Cats and clouds get along," Puar answered cryptically. "O-kay," Oolong replied.   
  
_ Hang with the boys and hear the stories they tell   
She might act kind of proud   
But no respect for herself   
  
_ "I hate this," Bulma grumbled annoyedly. "Look at it this way, least you won`t need make-up now," ChiChi pointed out, trying to find a bright side to look at, if only to avoid crumpling into a heap. "... Least I never needed it to begin with," Bulma retorted sharply. "Say`s the woman who wore eight pounds of it daily," ChiChi grinned. "Definately one of those days," Puar and Videl both muttered at the same time as Bulma and ChiChi continued their rambling arguement.   
  
_ She finds love in all the wrong places   
The same situations   
Just different faces   
Changed up her pace since her daddy left her   
Too bad he never told her   
She deserved much better   
  
_ "Faster!" Zangya ordered, watching the boys, both of whom had almost healed by now, perform yet another Fusion Dance, though they didn`t Fuse this time. "Fu-_Sion_-_**HA!!!**_" They yelled, going through the paces of the dance at an ever increasing rate. They were almost to the point that they could Fuse upside-down, they`d already done it in the air and during the brief flash of cold-to-hot, they`d done it under water _and_ submerged in lava. Zangya herself was healing up as well, not quite finished but enough that she`d resumed training and begun sparring the boys.   
  
"Faster!" She yelled again, just as the cold flared through the area at an unbarable rate, turning mundane temperatures to sub-zero in a matter of seconds. "Fu-_Sion_-**_HA!!!_**" They both said in unison, going through the pacing for the umpteenth time in one day. _"Just need them to get a bit faster with it,"_ Zangya thought. "One more time and we should have it, go!"   
  
"Fu-_Sion_-**_HA!!!_**"   
  
At that, the boys fell over sideways, both of them breathing tiredly and both of them looking a bit worse for wear. "Good. You`ve taken the time down from twenty to five seconds, now all you need to do is get stronger," Zangya stated, even as the frigid air lashed out once again, sending a jagged pillar of ice up in front of her. "And that means fighting. And lot`s of it," she stated grimly, watching the two of them light up like Christmas trees.   
  
"I`m guessing you`re ready then?" Zangya asked, stepping around the pillar and watching them get up. "Are you gonna spar with us?" Trunks asked tiredly. "I would kid, believe me," Zangya replied. "But given that you and Goten both have gone up to a level I can`t touch now, I`m afraid you`ll just be sparring each other," she stated with a shake of the head. "Does that mean we`re stronger than my brother was?" Goten asked.   
  
"... Yeah, it does," Zangya replied thoughtfully. "At least in his normal and Super Saiyan forms, you guys haven`t gone past that yet but..." She paused and added a second later. "At the rate you`re going, I`d be surprised if you didn`t hit it on raw power alone," she stated. Goten and Trunks exchanged sinister little smirks and pried themselves off of the ice before lowering into fighting stances.   
  
_ "Why do I get the feeling I just lit a fire under those boys` asses?"_ Zangya asked herself, not knowing if that was a good or bad thing given the way they were looking at each other. It was true that Goten was still stronger, but Trunks had developed more technique as a result. Even though they both had their specialties, they were still deadlocked.   
  
"Ready?" Trunks asked. "Waitin` on you," Goten replied.   
  
_ Johnny boy always played the fool   
He broke all the rules   
So you would think he was cool   
  
_ "That`s odd," Gohan commented, glancing out over the ever-changing horizon in the general direction of where the greater part of the Midway Point, Heaven and the Upper Hells were all located. "Hey Dad!" He called out. "What?" Goku asked from his vantage point of leaning back lazily against a tree and waiting for Shin to make the next move in a game of chess...   
  
Save that the chess pieces were all miniature icons of Hercule.   
  
"You feel that?" Gohan asked. "What?" Goku replied. "Reach out with your senses ya dolt," Bob ordered. "Now get your attention back to bringing out your hidden power," he ordered. Gohan complied with a sigh and rested his head in one hand, drearily staring at the hairs of Bob`s mustache.   
  
Goku on the other hand grimaced. "... Looks like Buu is taking out everyone on the Look Out," he commented sourly. "_That_ can`t be good," Shin muttered, moving a piece in the game up another square toward`s Goku`s queen, which was actually a little icon of Hercule doing some weird looking pose with big, rounded off eyes staring up at the player.   
  
"Checkmate," Goku commented pleasantly before standing up, having moved one piece past all of Shin`s planning and eventually dropping it right next to his King without the Kaioshin even noticing. "... You... Have got to be kidding me," Shin muttered, staring in disbelief as Goku stood up straight and dusted himself off. "You`re not as dumb as you act," he grumbled up at Goku, who was dusting off the seat of his pants with a cryptic, knowing little grin.   
  
"Mind if I bring up some friends and family to this place?" Goku asked curiously. "I`m afraid not, it`s bad enough that you and Gohan are here but we can`t allow anyone else to know of this place`s location, even if they could never reach it regardless," Shin replied dryly. "I`m guessing you`re trying to preserve it`s legend then, huh?" Goku asked. "If it ceases to be a legend, it loses it`s serenity. Kaioshin planets are weird like that," Shin replied. "I see... Of course if you let a few people come here then you can send them back and have them spread the legend but since I`ll be the one teleporting them, they won`t know where it is!"   
  
"... You really _aren`t_ as dumb as you act..."   
  
"Where do ya think Gohan got his smarts from, hm?" Goku asked, tapping two fingers to his forehead with that same cryptic little grin before vanishing in a blur.   
  
Shin was left absolutely dumbfounded.   
  
_ He was never really one of the guys   
No matter how hard he tried   
Often thought of suicide   
  
_ "No farther," the Ox King stated, standing firmly in the path of Majin Buu, even though that meant he had basically taken up the entire hallway. Piccolo grimaced and simply looked away from what was about to happen. "... I`m hungry," Buu growled. "**_CHOCOLATE, NOW!!!_**" He screamed, tossing his head tail forward and turning the Ox King into just that. The huge figure of Gyuu Mao vanished in a flash of pink light to reveal a Hershey`s bar the size of the average car.   
  
"... This will do," Buu muttered with a sedate grin, walking forward and taking the bar in hand. Piccolo simply stepped around and refused to look, turning down another corridor that led in the direct opposite direction of the Room of Spirit and Time, Buu no more than a few steps behind with the huge bar of chocolate in hand, though it was already starting to shrink as he ate it.   
  
_ It's kind of hard when you ain't got no friends   
He put his life to an end   
They might remember him then   
  
_ "**_WOLF FANG FIST!!!_**"   
  
_ You cross the line and there's no turning back   
Told the world how he felt   
With the sound of a gat   
  
_ For several seconds, Yamcha attacked, throwing out open handed punch after open handed punch, trying to hit Buu only to somehow miss each time, but he never get the chance to try anything else. Buu`s headtail was faster than the former bandit could ever dream to be, and it was also more precise.   
  
Yamcha collapsed in a heap with a hole running straight through the right side of his chest, his heart having effectively been impaled before the tail withdrew, leaving him to lay there and die in a pool of his own blood. Buu had stopped for several seconds, as had Piccolo during this final attack, buying precious time for Trunks and Goten.   
  
The two resumed their slow walk a few moments later.   
  
_ We are, we are, the youth of the nation  
We are, we are, the youth of the nation  
  
_ Goten skidded along sideways on the ice, followed by a determined looking Trunks, who slid along and allowed himself to fall sideways and backwards, making an attempt to kick out the other boy`s legs only to have Goten hop up and allow him to pass beneath. The two had been slugging it out for close to an hour, both were Super Saiyans and both were fighting with their all.   
  
"**_TAIYOKEN!!!_**" Trunks screamed, fanning his fingers out in front of face while Goten landed with a skid, following his friend`s ki signature to the extent that his knee was successful in finding Trunks` gut, but the other boy replied in kind, backhanding Goten across the face and sending them tumbling and sliding apart from each other. The Room of Spirit and Time flared through seasons again, becoming red hot as the ground started to liquify. Both boys shot up and locked with kicks in mid-air.   
  
The training continued.   
  
_ Who's to blame for the lives that tragedies claim   
No matter what you say   
It don't take away the pain   
  
_ "Ow," the Ox King groaned, heaving his considerable bulk off of the ground while Yamcha nonchalantly pried Puar off of his face and glanced around. "Where`s Roshi?" They both asked right off the bat. "Went to find his turtle," ChiChi answered with a shrug before giving her father a hug. As much of a hug as she could give to someone who was wider than the span of her arms. "And probably some porn from the local demons," she added nonchalantly with a gagging tone. "That guy`s got a one-track mind, huh?" Yamcha asked, setting Puar onto his shoulder. He took being dead far better than the others in the group, mainly since he had already died once before when he was in his late twenties due to a Cyba Man.   
  
"Are Krillin, Juu and Marron going to be joining us anytime soon?" Videl asked tiredly. "Thankfully no - I hope. We were trying to help buy time for Goten, Trunks and Zangya so..."   
  
"The four of us knowingly threw our lives away to save the universe. Don`t cheer, just give money," Oolong cut in. "One last heroic, huh Yamcha?" Bulma asked cynically. "Can it puffy," Yamcha replied with a smug grin. "**_I AM NOT PUFFY!!!_**" Bulma shrieked. "Puffy," Oolong cut in. If he wasn`t a sugarpuff, he would`ve been grinning like an idiot. "You would be one to talk, Piggy," Bulma growled. "Doesn`t work anymore, Puffball."   
  
_ That I feel inside, I'm tired of all the lies   
Don't nobody know why   
It's the blind leading the blind   
  
_ There was a fizzing sound and all eyes shot towards the back of the line. "Wow, nice to see almost everyone`s intact... Which is Bulma and which is Oolong, or did they not die yet?" He asked. "I`m Oolong," the first puff said, calmly distancing itself from Bulma and latching onto Yamcha`s leg somehow. "I`m Bulma, twit," Bulma answered afterward, floating alone. "... That explains that," Goku said with a shrug. "ChiChi? Jeez, Buu`s dropping you guys like flies..."   
  
"Shut up ya big lug," ChiChi muttered, all but wrapping herself around Goku in a manner that would knock any normal man off his feet on contact. Goku? He just smiled and returned the hug. "Good to see you too, Chi," he commented, gingerly avoiding hugging her too tightly. It wasn`t easy to hug someone when you could break them in two if you weren`t careful. "Oh and Videl," Goku spoke up, drawing the attention of the girl. "You were right," he said with a cheesy little smirk.   
  
"Huh?"   
  
"Gohan`s alive."   
  
"**_WHAT?!_**" Came the chorus from virtually everyone. "Yeah, an old Kaioshin named Bob is powering him up to go back and fight Buu," Goku explained calmly. "Bob?" Bulma asked in disbelief. Goku let out a slight grunt and pried ChiChi off before she could suffocate him, then heaved her back up into another hug. "Yeah, that`s his name. Anyway, I`ve come to take you guys to them, if ya want," Goku stated, setting ChiChi down after a few seconds more.   
  
"I`m staying here," ChiChi affirmed. "I may want to see Gohan but if Goten dies, I`m going to make sure he doesn`t come here without his mother waiting for him," she explained grimly. "I understand," Goku replied knowingly. "If you`re staying, so am I," the Ox King interjected, settling himself down against the safety railing, careful to avoid putting his weight on it. "So will I... Not like I really have anyone to see given Vegeta`s probably in Hell and my parents are in that line over there," Bulma grumbled, hovering over to the space next to the Ox King.   
  
"Since they`re all staying, I`m just gonna go face Judgement. I`m sure the ogres all remember me, plus I don`t want Roshi sending himself to Hell by accident or anything," Yamcha stated grimly, floating up off of the ground. "Alright, Videl?" Goku asked as Yamcha, Puar and Oolong all vanished over the horizon towards Enma`s palace.   
  
_ I guess that's the way the story goes   
Will it ever make sense   
Somebody's got to know   
  
_ "Uh... Well," Videl paused, looking down at her feet. "I`ll take that as a yes then," Goku replied, nonchalantly grabbing Videl on the shoulder. "I`ll see you soon Chi, if Goten ends up here, tell him Daddy said hi, alright?" Goku asked. ChiChi only gave a nod. "Tell Gohan I said I love him, got that? And make sure he doesn`t get obsessed with fighting anymore than he already is!" ChiChi yelled as Goku and Videl vanished.   
  
"... Some days, I honestly don`t know what I`d do without that man," ChiChi commented to herself whistfully before sitting down on what felt like a warm chair.   
  
"ChiChi."   
  
"Yes, Bulma?"   
  
"You`re sitting on me."   
  
"... Oh well."   
  
_ There's got to be more to life than this   
There's got to be more to everything   
I thought exists  
  
_ They ended up standing in the middle of a serene looking place that was oddly reminiscent of the area around the Son family home, although the skyline was certainly a bit more dizzying and a good bit more pleasant to look up at. Videl almost instantly felt herself become a bit heavier but unlike most people, she didn`t really notice it. Being a seasoned martial arts prodigy in her own right and having had all of the training she`d gone through over the course of her admittedly brief lifetime, it wasn`t really that much to be effected with.   
  
"Welcome back... You were cheating, weren`t you?" Shin asked, still staring at the chess board. "Nah, you just left yourself open on the third-to-last move you made and didn`t think to close it," Goku replied, pointing out the one gap in the Kaioshin`s playing style. "Damn... You`re right," Shin grumbled. "Nice place," Videl mused, glancing around and taking in the scenery and those in it slowly. Kibito was languidly sitting indian-style against a rock, Goku and Shin were... Playing chess under a tree...   
  
And an old guy and someone remarkably familiar were sitting across from each other, indian style like Kibito, both dressed in Kaioshin-styled clothing. "Now _there`s_ a sight I never thought I`d see," Videl mused, nonchalantly leaving Goku and Shin behind and walking through the grass as stealthily as possible.   
  
_ We are, we are, the youth of the nation  
We are, we are, the youth of the nation  
  
_ "_Sir_ Gohan," a voice rang out from behind. Gohan languidly straightened up and turned around to find himself eye level with a crouching Videl Satan. "Has a nice ring to it, huh?" She asked with barely concealed amusement at his deer-caught-in-headlights expression. "... What in the Hell are you doing here?" Gohan asked bluntly.   
  
"Just dropping by to do this," Videl replied before planting a kiss firmly on Gohan`s lips.   
  
"Ah, so you were holdin` out on me!" Bob yelled with annoyance.   
  
_ We are, we are, the youth of the nation  
We are, we are, the youth of the nation  
  
_ Goten and Trunks both fell over sideways as the Fusion ended. "We did it," Trunks laughed insanely. "We went past Super Saiyan," Goten added. "And we did it with _style_," Trunks snickered, sitting up straight and wiping his forehead off while Goten preferred to take a nap on the ground. "But you didn`t master it," Zangya reminded them, standing to their right like a teacher, stern and dedicated as ever to making sure the two were prepared.   
  
"It was the first time Zan, cut us some slack," Trunks replied. "I know, but you`ll have to master that level if you want to take Buu down," Zangya replied. "We will," Goten muttered, prying himself up off of the ground and letting out a loud yell while flaring up into Super Saiyan, then into the second level after that. "Try it again?" He asked as Trunks let out a groan. "Don`t you people believe in _ever_ taking a break?" He asked.   
  
"Only when we finish what we set out to do," Goten answered. "Exactly what I was going to say," Zangya commented amusedly. "Teacher`s pet," Trunks grumbled, scraping himself back up and flaring up to match Goten on an exact level. "Shall we?" He asked.   
  
"Yeah."   
  
_ We are, we are, the youth of the nation  
We are, we are, the youth of the nation  
  
_ "Fu..."   
  
"... _Sion_..."   
  
"... _**HA!!!**_"   
  
And the training continued...   
  


_  


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_

**Author`s Note:** How they drop like flies... *Funeral music plays.*  
  
**CysticLOL17:** Damn straight I`m not done with Dende just yet. He won`t appear for a while but he`s got quite the role to play in how this will all turn out. And yeah, there really **are** a lot of unexpected heroes in this one, aren`t there? As for Goten`s recent... Changes, well... They`ll probably manifest more strongly in any potential sequel. It takes time for these things to fully set in and he`s a bit too busy right now to be paying attention to them, regardless of how serious they may be.  
  
**Professor Authordude:** BOB! :D And don`t be too hard on yourself. A lot of the twists I`ve pulled in HT have only been blaringly obvious AFTER they`re revealed.  
  
**diamondgirl:** Strawberry-blonde SSJ... I didn`t think of it like that :P Actually he`s just got a big freaking streak of solid, blood red coloring through his hair, the eyebrows are where it intermingles when he`s a Super Saiyan. It`s a long story in and of itself, one that will probably be explained if there`s a ever a sequel that has room to focus on it. And yeah, glad to see you were okay with how Videl got offed... I dunno about anyone else but I`m kinda sick of all the stories where she just HAPPENS to miraculously survive when everyone else and their mom drops dead x.e  
  
That`s all for now folks! See ya in a few days! Enjoy, leave a review and Sh33p out! See ya next time!  
  



	26. Everlong

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


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**

Hybrid Theory: Generations

**  
_Everlong   
  
  
  
"Zangya, Goten, Trunks - listen and listen good,"_ Piccolo thought, breaking the barrier between thought, time and space for only a little while to send off a message of warning. Buu was growing impatient to the extreme, much longer and he`d likely blow apart the entire Look Out and trap everyone in the Room permanently. _"I`m speaking to you through your hearts but I don`t have much time so I`ll have to make this quick: Buu and I are on our way to the Room of Spirit and Time. The others and I have stalled him as long as we can but we can`t wait anymore, you`ll have about eighteen hours to rest up and calm yourselves for the battle to come because it`ll take us another three minutes to get to the room at the pace we`re going in." _  
  
He paused, both in thought and in movement to look over his shoulder. "There are still four people if you`re hungry," Piccolo offered, managing to shut off any attachments he may have had to Krillin, Popo, Marron and Juuhachigou. "... Hurry. Up. Not hungry," Buu replied with visible annoyance. "Very well," Piccolo said with a shrug, continuing on a few seconds later. _"And so you all know, I`m going to destroy the door out if you lose. Don`t screw around, we can`t afford it,"_ he warned ahead of time, guiding Buu around another corner.   
  
"How much further?" Buu growled. "Just two and a half minutes," Piccolo replied calmly, leading Buu along down another number of flights of stairs, intent on taking the longest way he could in that time. "... You`re trying my patience," Buu muttered. "And you`re trying my will to keep from blowing my own head off, your point?" Piccolo retorted. "A sharp tongue will only earn a slit throat," Buu replied. "I`ve had worse."   
  
"But have you been able to scream as it happened?" Buu asked with a sick little grin, even though Piccolo didn`t look back to face him. "We`re almost there," he stated dryly, stopping and turning down another doorway, this time one that actually led towards the door into the Room.   
  
A minute passed by as the two walked on, and finally, Buu spoke up again. "How much further?"   
  
"We`re already here," Piccolo replied, pointing forward and to the left for the Room of Spirit and Time. "This is it?" Buu asked with a grunt. "This is it," Piccolo affirmed, stepping past Majin Buu and opening the door slowly to reveal a plain little house-like area surrounded by nothing but bleak whiteness. Buu snorted and stepped inside, followed a few seconds later by Piccolo, who also locked the door in the process.   
  
"Took ya long enough," Zangya muttered lowly, leaned against the frame of the door. Buu whipped around and almost tried to take her head off with one swift blow, but his punch missed by an inch or two as Zangya tilted her head to the side. "Ah-ah Pinky, your opponent is out there," she stated with as much calmness as anyone else could muster in that sort of situation, pointing towards the area outside. Buu withdrew his fist from the wall and turned around, slowly creeping outside and looking from left to right before settling his gaze forward.   
  
Two boys stood at the ready to meet him, mirroring each other`s movements and stances perfectly. "Which of you is my opponent?" Buu asked in a ferally pleased tone of voice. "Both of us," Goten answered. "But you`ll have to wait a few seconds for us to show you why," Trunks added. Buu snorted. "All this waiting is really starting to bore me... Is this fight worth it?" He demanded. "Or maybe I should turn you into chocolate?"   
  
Neither boy even blinked. "So... He lost weight but didn`t gain a brain," Trunks commented sourly. "And this surprises you?" Goten asked. "... Good point. Shall we?" Trunks replied with a smirk. "I was waiting on you to say that," Goten answered. "What are you two doing?" Buu growled, hunching forward slightly in preparation for an attack that never came.   
  
"Shouldn`t they be fusing as Super Saiyans?" Piccolo asked. "Or Super Saiyan Two`s," Zangya corrected. "And no, they can change levels even when Fused. Weird lookin` kid though..."   
  
"_Fu_..."   
  
"Eh?" Buu asked, stepping forward once and then pausing as the two boys started shimmying along the ground towards each other.   
  
"... **_Sion_**..."   
  
"Did I mention they happen to be a bit arrogant, snot nosed and use stupid names for their moves as a Fusion?"   
  
"... **_HA!!!_**"   
  
If Piccolo had a reply, it was cut off by the roar of the following rush of ki, so intense that only Buu seemed unmoved as the two boys vanished into a pillar of light that arced as high as the eye could see, though it was just a few feet wide at most. Seconds further passed as the wind whipped by, throwing Piccolo`s cape and Zangya`s hair both up and back as the two walked towards the steps, intent on getting a closer look.   
  
And then it all stopped to reveal a single boy, dressed in a strangely similar-yet-different way to Buu. Same pants, relatively similar boots but a different belt and a vest, as well as different bands around the wrists. With a smirk similar to Trunks` own, Gotenks stepped forward and threw his arms up in a cross over his face, throwing them back down with a howl that featured the voices of both Goten and Trunks in perfect unison.   
  
Piccolo and Zangya were both almost thrown off their feet as a result.   
  
"He`s as strong as Gohan!" Piccolo exclaimed in shock. Gotenks was as powerful a peak-level Super Saiyan One in his normal form.   
  
Buu wasn`t even moved.   
  
"What`s wrong Buu? Too scared to move?" Gotenks asked, stepping forward a bit and lowering into a fighting stance. "Is that it?" Buu asked. "Right, you`ve already dealt with people this strong before," Gotenks commented. "Which just means I`ll have to take it up a notch."   
  
_ Hello  
I've waited here for you  
Everlong  
  
_ This time, even Buu was inched back, literally since it was only an inch or two. Flames, red and gold, shot up off of the ground in a blaze bright enough to obscure Gotenks` small form even more so than the Fusion itself. Quickly, the flames rushed in a mad whirlwind around the boy`s form, their own roar violently shut out by the sound of an ever rising yell that could shatter glass with ease. After several seconds of this process, Gotenks stopped his power-up, allowing the glare of the flames to die down and reveal that the Fusion had done exactly as he had threatened.   
  
"Super Saiyan," Gotenks announced with a little smile, revelling in the mixture of crimson and golden fire that had swept up and surrounded him in a double aura, the outer being golden, the inner being the same color as blood, both rushing at a furious rate and arcing up a good few feet off the top of the boy`s spiked up, outrageous looking hairstyle, which had taken on a similar change before the inner aura faded gold, an action mimicked by the large streak of red running through his hair.   
  
"... That`s it?" Buu asked.   
  
"... Whaddaya mean that`s it?! Aren`t you impressed at least a smidget?!" Gotenks demanded. "No. All that`s changed between you and the other golden haired fools I`ve killed is that you`re a little stronger, a lot smaller and a great deal uglier," Buu replied with a sneer. "Oh, like you`re good looking either? Feh, big pink glob of chewed up bubblegum."   
  
"Better to be a big, pink glob of chewed up bubblegum than a stupid little twit with no sense of fashion."   
  
"... Fashion? We`re dressed alike, you dumbass."   
  
"My belt`s better," Buu countered proudly. "... Least I have hair instead of a head-dick!" Gotenks shot back, hands on his hips. "Better a head-dick that I can use than flashy hair which makes it hard to conceal myself," Buu retorted. "... I don`t even wanna know what _that_ is supposed to mean," Gotenks muttered. "Oh, it isn`t like that, I assure you. More like _this_," Buu stated, tail arcing up, widening and then stabbing down at Gotenks, who simply stepped aside and allowed the chunk of Buu`s anatomy to embed itself into the ground.   
  
"That`s it?" Gotenks asked, unimpressed. "No," Buu replied, suddenly liquifying his body and coalescing next to Gotenks, the back of his hand already well on it`s way to impacting with Gotenks` cheek.   
  
It never made it, instead finding itself halted by the boy`s forearm. "Is _that_ it?" Gotenks asked. "Maybe," Buu replied, only to liquify his arm and continue the blue, resolidifying just in time to soundly smack Gotenks across the cheek and send the boy staggering sideways. "Maybe not," he stated with a grin. Gotenks paused, standing straight and taking a moment to pop his jaw back into place. "Isn`t that special," he growled in both Trunks and Goten`s voices.   
  
_ Tonight I throw myself into  
And out of the red  
Out of her head she sang   
  
_ "So in other words, you`re having the old guy here power you up," Videl surmised. "Yeah, pretty much," Gohan replied, splitting his concentration between Bob and Videl as best he could. "A task not helped by the fact his little girlfriend is distracting him," Bob growled annoyedly. "You don`t tell me what to do, old fart," Videl ordered more than exclaimed. Bob glared knives at her and then turned towards Gohan with that semi-irate look. "... A wise man told me once, never to anger a woman. Especially not one on her monthly," Gohan replied to the silent plea.   
  
"Bah... Kids today," Bob grumbled, going right back to work. "So, how does it feel?" Videl asked. "Not really different actually," Gohan answered. "That`s because I haven`t finished yet," Bob cut in before exitting the conversation under Videl`s heated glare. "What about your little trip into Hell?" Videl asked. "... Uhm... Well, Vegeta`s enjoying himself, that`s all I can really say without taking an hour to fully explain it," Gohan replied. "Speaking off which..."   
  
"Ten minutes," Bob answered in advance.   
  
"Almost time..."   
  
"How was Vegeta enjoying himself?"   
  
"Well..."   
  
  
"**_NEXT?!_**" Vegeta howled, by now painted near purple with Aisu blood and at present, swinging around one of the dozen or so Aisu warrior-kings that had predated King Kold by three or four generations. Not to mention the fact that he was laughing insanely as he did so and throwing out random ki blasts powerful enough to blow chunks out of an average star.   
  
  
"Kinda figures that of everyone I know, only Vegeta would enjoy going to Hell," Videl commented dryly. "I wouldn`t say enjoy... That isn`t strong enough a word. I mean, really, you should`ve seen him. He was laughing his head off, blowing things up left and right, tearing apart everything that wasn`t relatively human looking... I think it`s the happiest I`ve ever seen him," Gohan replied. "Like I said, it figures," Videl retorted, casually having seated herself in a position where her chin was slumped on Gohan`s shoulder and one of her hands had somehow found a way to intertwine with his.   
  
Nevermind the fact that Gohan was still blushing to the roots of his hair, but that really isn`t the point.   
  
_ Come down  
And waste away with me  
Down with me  
Slow how  
You wanted it to be  
I'm over my head  
Out of her head she sang   
  
_ "Die!"   
  
"Eat meh!"   
  
"'Meh?'"   
  
"Yes! Meh!"   
  
"What`s 'meh?'"   
  
"Meh is _this_!" Gotenks explained, winding back and smashing his forehead squarely into Buu`s face with cratering impact, causing the very back of the of the demon`s head to stick out in the general shape of Gotenks` face. Gotenks withdrew with a cheeky grin and flashed a 'V' sign to Zangya and Piccolo. "Like it?" He asked with that same grin as Buu jammed his finger into his mouth and blew his head back into proportion. "I`ve seen better. Tell me boy, do you know what a real headbutt is like?" Buu asked.   
  
"Eh?"   
  
"Allow me to show you."   
  
That said, Buu jumped forward and into the air, seeming to contort his entire body into one awkward looking cannonball shape, chin resting just atop the bottom of his... Well, bottom. "Observe," Buu stated. "No thanks," Gotenks replied, darting to the side as if to avoid the attack, which simply came as more of a surprise because of his movements.   
  
"Ew," Zangya muttered. "... I don`t think 'ew' does it justice,'" Piccolo replied with thinly veiled disgust as Buu`s face and rear end extended out almost ten feet, curved sharply on a right angle and then smacked Gotenks across the cheek, sending the golden haired boy twisting to the side as a result while the rest of Buu`s body followed the movement of his attack, leaving him to sit up straight on the ground a few yards away.   
  
"That is a real headbutt. Understand?"   
  
"... Headbutt? You call that a headbutt?" Gotenks asked, straightening up and attempting to regain his composure. "Yes. I do. I smacked you with my head and my butt, what else should I call it?" Buu asked. "The pansiest attack I`ve ever been hit with, that`s what!" Gotenks replied annoyedly. "**_This_** is a headbutt!"   
  
With that, Gotenks threw his head back and then slammed his face straight into the ground, throwing off a small shockwave that knocked Zangya and Piccolo back a few inches but left Buu utterly unscathed. "You were saying?" Buu asked as Gotenks stood up straight, only to wobble side to side. "Ow..."   
  
"... He`s an idiot. An absolute, unbridled idiot," Piccolo muttered. "Maybe, but he has some good moves. Just have to piss him off enough," Zangya replied with obvious cynicism.   
  
"Alright, no more o` that," Gotenks stated, shaking out a bit of ivory-colored dirt from his hair and rubbing the sore little bruise on his forehead. "If all you can do is throw pathetic attacks like that, I`m leaving," Buu growled. "... Alright, fine, want me to play for keeps?" Gotenks asked with audible annoyance.   
  
"Yes!" Buu replied boredly.   
  
_ And I wonder  
When I sing along with you  
If everything could ever feel this real forever   
  
_ "Have it your way!" Gotenks shouted, throwing his hands to the side and pausing for all of a second to draw power. "Galactica..." He began, just as his hands gained a glow akin to a pair of twin suns, just as gold and likely just as bright. "Super..." Gotenks threw his hands up over his head, flattening his palms just as the glow lifted from around his hands and spread out into a disk pattern, widening at the center into a ring.   
  
"_Donut_!" Gotenks shouted, causing the ring to float up into the air and then drift over to hang above Buu, just as Gotenks lowered his hands to aim right at the muscularly built demon. "Enjoy," he stated with a sick little grin, closing his hands into fists and then smacking his fists shut tightly, causing the ring to promptly squeeze shut around Buu, who let out a scream as a result of all of this.   
  
"... He has some stupid names for his moves," Piccolo muttered. "You don`t know the half of it," Zangya replied dryly.   
  
_ If anything could ever be this good again  
The only thing I'll ever ask of you  
You've got to promise not to stop when I say when   
  
_ "Aww, does that hurt Buu?" Gotenks asked, squeezing the donut tighter by the second, grinding his fists together in a manner that caused the ki of the attack to 'roll' up and down, raking across Buu`s midsection to an agonizing degree. The demon`s only reply was the prolonged screaming he had started when the attack began. "Too bad for you that I`m just getting warmed up," Gotenks stated, twisting his fists in a manner that would give someone indian rope burn.   
  
And then Buu`s screaming stopped.   
  
And then Buu looked at Gotenks with a feral little smile.   
  
"Just kidding," he stated, suddenly shattering the ring like glass and causing Gotenks to twitch in annoyance. "I... Uh... I was counting on you doing that," Gotenks lied, only to falter back as Buu somehow moved from almost fifteen feet away to stand directly in front of him, halting perfectly in the process. "Meep..."   
  
Gotenks jumped up with a flip to try and dodge as Buu brought his hands together with a thunderous clap, throwing off a visible sonic boom from the impact point, only to clasp his hands together on impact and swing both straight up and into Gotenks` chin, causing the boy to flip backwards and hang there a few feet off of the ground. "Going _**UP!**_" Buu howled with a grin, throwing his foot straight into Gotenks` stomach and throwing the Fusion skyward like a field goal kick in an American football game.   
  
As intended, Gotenks went upward for a good number of seconds before Buu seemed to appear above and behind him, backflipping and bringing another foot crashing down across Gotenks` back, throwing the boy back down towards the ground again before flipping once more and charging straight down after him.   
  
"I`m going to enjoy taking you apart..."   
  
Buu continued downward, just as Gotenks regained the sense to flip himself upright, landing with a powerful shock into a crouch only to spring back up with a grunt.   
  
"**_PIECE BY BLOODY PIE_**-" Buu`s threats ended as abruptly as his downward flight when he impacted the single most powerful weapon ever concieved of by anything, mortal or immortal.   
  
The Son Family Headbutt.   
  
"Owww..." Buu groaned as the two drifted apart, both falling from the skies a few seconds later. Gotenks landed uneasily on his feet, Buu landed on all fours and slopped down onto his belly, an oversized lump rising from the spot next to the tail on his head. A few seconds passed by as Gotenks staggered back and Buu wobbled to his feet.   
  
"Eheh... _**TAKE THAT YOU FREAK!**_" Gotenks yelled, raising up one of his hands and giving Buu the one-finger-salute while the pink demon growled a few times. "I wanted to drag this out a bit to get you over what you did to my dad and Gohan but this is getting old so... Oh well," Gotenks said to himself with a shrug. "Hey Buu!" He shouted. "Hard headed little piece of rotten... _What_?!" Buu replied angrily. "Guess what!" Gotenks challenged, placing his arms across his chest. "_No_! No guessing! _Die_!" Buu howled, lunging forward only to punch straight into the ground.   
  
Gotenks blurred back into view where Buu had been standing, an utterly annoyed look across his face. "Guess what!" Gotenks challenged again, a bit more authoritatively this time. "**_WHAT?!_**" Buu demanded irately, turning around to face Gotenks with a look that could kill someone just from seeing it. "_**I`M GOING TO USE MY NEW, SUPER SPECIAL TECHNIQUE!**_" Gotenks announced proudly, placing his hands at his hips and cackling briefly.   
  
"New... Super special technique?" Buu asked, forgetting to be angry for a second. "Yes! My **_NEW_** super special technique! The one that`ll kill you like the simpy bastard you are!" Gotenks replied with a grin. "... Then shut up and do it!" Buu ordered. "Fine, fine... Take this! And die while you`re at it!" Gotenks shot back, taking a deep breath and drawing his head back, then throwing it forward and seeming to vomit up a mass of something that looked like smoke.   
  
"... Projectile vomitting is a new special technique nowadays?" Piccolo asked monotonously. "Probably, but don`t worry. This is a pretty good technique really..." Zangya replied. "Too bad I don`t have any popcorn though," she griped annoyedly. "... How can you think to try and be funny right now? The world hangs in the balance, this is not the time for sarcastic wit!" Piccolo yelled, causing Zangya`s hair to tilt to the side. "It`s always the time!" She replied just as loudly, offsetting the balance of Piccolo`s oversized shoulderpads.   
  
"I give you," Gotenks began, allowing the puffy little ball of smoke the time to expand and take shape, yanking arms up out of no where. "The Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack," he finished, just as the strange looking little creature yanked it`s head up and out of it`s body. "Victory is mine," Gotenks stated with a smirk.   
  
"... Eh..." Buu just stared briefly and cocked his head to the side. "It doesn`t look like much..."   
  
"You`re just trembling in fear!" The ghost exclaimed. "Booha! Boogawooga! Yip-yip-yippita!" The ghost sounded off, doing a cha-cha to the right and then back to the left as he did so. Buu facefaulted.   
  
"... Do they always do this?" Piccolo asked. "Yep," Zangya replied with a tick of her neck.   
  
"What the Hell is that?" Buu asked in a disturbed tone. "Ah ayum the grim reapuh, son! Fe`ah meh!" The little ghost answered in the tone of an overweight southerner. "... 'Fe`ah' you?" Buu asked. "Just kill him already," Gotenks ordered assertively. "Will do boss!"   
  
With that, the Super Ghost Kamikaze lunged forward, streaking through the air towards his target and roughly coming to a grinding stop right in front of him. "_**I`M INCREDIBLY SCAR**_-y" The ghost almost stopped speaking as Buu backhanded it across the stomach, then just smiled.   
  
_ Breathe out so I can breathe you in  
Hold you in  
And now I know you've always been  
  
_ "**_HOLY SHIT!!!_**" Piccolo yelped as the ghost detonated in a blast large enough to singe the outer threads of his cape and mantle, yet still focused enough in it`s intensity to rival anything the Namekian warrior had ever seen before. "Told you he had some good ones!" Zangya shouted with a near audible smile.   
  
"Behold the awesome power of the Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack! Don`t applaud, just throw money," Gotenks ordered, flashing peace signs to anything that moved. Buu just sort of stood there in a deformed haze, gagging to himself amidst the newly clearing smoke of the blast.   
  
"Now, how to finish you off... Shine Shine? Angry Wombat Stew Bomb? Upset Bowel Surprise? Absolute Terror Bolt? Hellfire of Agony Beam? Gold Chains of Mister T? Blessed Hand of Sheridan Tac Nuke of Sufficient Yield? 200 Gigaton Turbolaser Surprise?" Gotenks began to recite the names of the moves to himself, though no less than half of them didn`t even exist.   
  
"Just hurry up and finish him already!" Zangya and Piccolo both shouted. Gotenks shrugged and glanced over at them. "But I have to make sure it`s a humiliating finish for him! After what he did? Come on!" He defended, turning back towards Buu to find that his opponent hadn`t just regenerated, he had also sat down, produced a television and a Playstation 2 from no where and begun playing Gundam Battle Assault 2.   
  
"... You super regenerative, smug, Arnold-wannabe _bastard_," Gotenks muttered annoyedly, hands on his hips. Buu ignored him for the time being, focused on his game.   
  
At least he _was_ focused on it until Gotenks blasted the television and the Playstation 2 out of anything remotely akin to existence as we would know it. "_I am not finished with you yet_!" Gotenks affirmed angrily. "Wank face," Buu replied, getting back to his feet with another of those psychotic, guttural laughs, head cocked to the side. "Wank face? A guy with _that_ on his head is calling _me_ a wank face?" Gotenks asked sarcastically, pointing to Buu`s head tail. "... Bloody wanker!" Buu shouted. "Least I can bleed and still wank! When I hit puberty!" Gotenks retorted sharply.   
  
"... Where did those boys learn that?" Piccolo asked. "South Park or Bulma and Vegeta`s endless arguing about their sex life which inevitably leads to a few pieces of broken furniture and Bulma walking bowlegged for a week," Zangya answered. "Take your pick," she offered.   
  
"Can we just hurry up and fight already?" Gotenks asked annoyedly. "I was waiting on you, shitdip," Buu answered. "It`s dipshit, you commie pinko gnome on speed," Gotenks corrected, bowing his head back after a few more seconds and taking in a deep breath. "Oh not this again..."   
  
"**_TEN SUPER GHOST KAMIKAZE ATTACKS AT ONCE!!!_**" Gotenks shouted, promptly spitting out a gigantic cloud that was ten times the size of the first. A few seconds passed as the cloud rumbled around and a few shapes tried to break free and form themselves but for the most part, it was stuck as a cloud. "... Feh, useless runts," Gotenks muttered, walking forward and plunging his hands into the cloud, tossing out two Super Ghost Kamikazes at a time until he finally split the last two apart and allowed them time to dust themselves off.   
  
"Shouldn`t those things have exploded?" Piccolo asked. "They only blow up after they`re formed," Zangya answered.   
  
"Form up!" Gotenks shouted, causing the Super Ghosts to all rumble up into position and form a line. "Sound off! One through ten!"   
  
"Abe!" "Bill!" "Dubya!" "Jeb!" "George!" "Woody!" "Teddy!" "Dick!" "Herb!" "Warble!"   
  
"... Okay, for one, who the hell is Warble?" Gotenks asked, glancing over at the deformed looking Super Ghost. "Warbleh joobleh foobleh moobleh!" The ghost sang, sliding to the left and right and then moon-walking towards Buu. "... Weeble!" The ghost shouted before dancing around Buu several times and then stopping in front of him with that same deformed, slightly stunted looking smile, tongue hanging out on the side. "What in the hell are you saying?" Buu asked in disbelief. "Huggleh!" The ghost shouted, pouncing on Buu and then hugging him. "Oh crap..."   
  
"**_NOW THAT IS A KAMIKAZE ATTACK!_**" Gotenks shouted approvingly. "Take notes boys," he ordered. Dick, the seventh ghost, just shook his head. "Peace, Warble!" He shouted, flashing a pair of peace signs an inadvertently smacking Herb. "You shitting dolt," Herb muttered before both exploded.   
  
"That was not," Gotenks growled after prying himself off of the ground and dusting himself off. "Okay boys, everyone get ready to attack... Jeb and Dubya, you try and tackle him, the rest of you," Gotenks trailed off into whispers. The ghosts and he all rose up and shouted approvingly before lining up again. "Go!" Gotenks shouted.   
  
Jeb and Dubya lunged forth in a clumsy sort of fashion, with Jeb practically trying to push Dubya but not touch him. Buu, still bruised up a bit from the last attack, jumped up and avoided both, causing them to crash together with a thunderous roar before touching down with a smirk, fully healed in mid-jump. "The same attack doesn`t work twice," he stated with a grim smirk. "Sure it does," Gotenks stated cryptically.   
  
"What are they planning?" Zangya asked. "I have no idea..." Piccolo answered.   
  
"Dude, is that a Maxim?" Teddy asked.   
  
"No, I think it`s a playboy with one of Gotenks` moms on it," Bill answered, apparently pointing out the fact that Bulma _wasn`t_ joking when she said 'Playmate to sugarpuff.' "Damn," Abe replied. "Eh?" Buu asked, walking quietly over to the group and peering over the shoulder of one of the ghosts. "What is it?"   
  
"Surprise!" All of the ghosts shouted at once, locking around Buu and grinning like idiots.   
  
"Oh... Shi-" Buu`s curse was cut off by the sound of a blast seven times as intense as the first Ghost`s, so powerful that it actually succeeded in putting a crater into the near-indestructable ground of the Room of Spirit and Time. "Victory is mine, peon," Gotenks stated, crossing his arms over his chest and flashing victory signs at the blast.   
  
_ Out of your head  
Out of my head I sang  
  
_ "And now for the grand finale," he said to himself as a superbly deformed Majin Buu gurgled it`s way out of the small crater on stumps of legs, face distorted terribly, eyes aimed in opposite directions. "One last _Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack_!" He announced proudly, hawking back and spitting out another puffy little cream colored cloud of smoke, though this one seemed to take shape almost instantly. "Name!?" Gotenks demanded.   
  
"1 4m l33tm4st3r L4rg0!11" The ghost identified itself, solidifying it`s individuality since most of it`s hair hung forward rather than backwards like the previous ghosts. "Good! Now, fly down his throat and blow up in his stomach!" Gotenks ordered, pointing towards Buu`s open, gagging mouth. "_**PH34R THE SUPER L33T GHOST KAMIKAZE!!!**_" Largo screamed, darting straight at Buu and then diving right down his throat.   
  
An instant later, Buu detonated in a cloud of pink slop that vaporized down to a few dozen blobs, each and every one of which landed around Gotenks. "Who owns ya now?" Gotenks asked with a sagely nod, stilling flashing victory signs all over the place.   
  
_ And I wonder  
When I sing along with you  
If everything could ever feel this real forever  
If anything could ever be this good again  
The only thing I'll ever ask of you  
You've got to promise not to stop when I say when   
  
_ "Still can`t feel them..." Goku muttered annoyedly. "It`d be fine if Buu was still outside but he`s been in there for about ten minutes in Room Time," he added. "Oh, they`re still fighting," Bob cut in, ignoring the power-up procedure for a few moments and creating a small crystal ball. "Hey Goku! Catch!" He shouted, chucking the object down the side of the hill and rolling it over to Shin and Goku, who finally turned from their game of chess to see that Gotenks had apparently one.   
  
"Wow... Gohan may not need to fight after all," Shin commented surprisedly. "Eh... Don`t count Buu out yet. The bad guys always have this one last trick up their sleeves and I don`t think Buu`s even gotten halfway there yet," Goku replied dryly. "Buu doesn`t even have sleeves though," Shin pointed out in an attempt to lighten the mood.   
  
"... That isn`t the point, Shin," Goku replied sarcastically. "Just trying to lighten the mood," the younger Kaioshin defended. "Well... Don`t celebrate `til we know he`s dead, and I don`t think he is yet," Goku stated grimly. "Then we`ll just have to hope he can`t last much longer," Shin grimaced.   
  
"But who`s going to give out first, Goten and Trunks or Buu?" Goku asked.   
  
"Good question..."   
  


_ End Part Twenty-Five  
  


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_

**Author`s Note:** L33T M4ST4H L4RG0! :D  
  
**CysticLOL17:** True but at least I didn`t off them in one big snack fest like the series did. Besides, everyone got a more noble end than they ever did in the mainstream, to me that makes it a little more okay to have done such a thing.  
  
**Professor Authordude:** _**BOB!**_  
  
**diamondgirl:** Yeah. Goku`s far smarter than people think if you ask me, he`s just what you call an idiot savant. AKA a dumb genius. And yeah, Bulma did all those things but she never DIRECTLY did any fighting or anything majorly significant aside from invent stuff and the rules of the afterlife are pretty screwy about that. Given Bulma`s ego though, it wouldn`t surprise me if she tried using the Dragonballs to ensure she has a body when she dies next time. Glad to see SOMEONE comment on the G/V kiss scene... There was ONLY five years of romantic tension behind it :P  
  
That`s all for now folks, enjoy and leave a review! Sh33p out! 


	27. Its My Life

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


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** Hybrid Theory: Generations**  
_ It`s My Life   
  
  
  
_

"Yanno, I know clean-up is important and everything but sheesh... I just took out the meanest bastard in recorded history and you`re _still_ making me help?" Gotenks asked annoyedly, putting a small bolt of ki into another of pink blobs that had once been Majin Buu. "So you`re bored, you`ve got twenty minutes left before you become Goten and Trunks and we intend to work you sick," Zangya replied dryly. "Get over it," she added. "So cruel," Gotenks grumbled, throwing another bolt of ki into another pink blob of Buu-goo, reducing it to molten ash as a result. "And after I saved your orange headed butt from Bojack too," he added poutily.   
  
"Bojack?" Piccolo asked. "Oh, remember Goten`s 'pal,' Jack?" Zangya asked. "... Let me take a wild, random guess," Piccolo replied before continuing. "Jack was actually Bojack, sharing Goten`s soul as some sort of ironic, _failed_ attempt at atonement, which really only served to put him under the thumb of the few people in the universe who could kill him if he tried to start trouble and Soul Bound to the one individual he couldn`t kill outside of specialized dimensions like this one without dying himself... And let me guess, again, he also spent his pathetic post-death existence trying to get Goten to do what he wanted only to eventually try to kill him in the Room of Spirit and Time, along with his former love interest and the past version of the future-born warrior who helped do away with his goals for universal domination."   
  
"Something like that," Gotenks replied, frying another blob of Buu. "They kinda look like K.Y. Jelly when they`re burning," he commented on an off note. "I don`t even wanna know how you learned what K.Y. Jelly looks like," Zangya muttered. "But yeah, something like that. Don`t know how in the hell you figured out Bojack and I were former lovers though," she added. "You don`t spend a combined total of over 1500 years fighting, lording over a planet, scheming for it`s destruction and wandering the universe alone without learning how to deduce the obvious. I mean, come on," Piccolo paused to fry five of the blobs at once, one beam from each of his right hand`s fingers. "Name one villainous male mastermind in all of history who hasn`t screwed the only - or in most cases, the only good looking - female member of his crew?"   
  
"Aww, are you saying I`m good looking?" Zangya asked sarcastically.   
  
"Don`t get your hopes up she-bitch. I said 'the _only_ -or in most cases the only good looking - female member.' Unless one of those big gibby bastards was a shemale, you were the only woman in Bojack`s crew," Piccolo replied sharply.   
  
"Oh well... Did I ever mention how much I enjoyed seeing you get your arms ripped off that time when you were trying to act smooth?" Zangya asked. "I _do_ aim to please, after all," Piccolo answered sardonically. "You two are weirdoes," Gotenks muttered under his breath, failing to take into account the fact that Nameks had hearing that could pick up a whisper at over a kilometer away, and Zangya`s own hearing wasn`t exactly shabby either. "We may be weirdoes, but at least we exist for more than thirty minutes at a time without some silly little dance," Zangya commented.   
  
"Maybe you do, but Piccolo had to absorb two people," Gotenks defended smugly. "And that means nothing," Piccolo countered dully. "What he said," Zangya added, throwing another bolt of energy into another blob of Buu-goo. "This is boring," Gotenks complained. "Just shut up, grin and bear it you whiny snot," Piccolo ordered annoyedly. "Such a change from Mister Serious," Zangya commented. "Ah shyaddap," Gotenks ordered.   
  
"There," Piccolo said, turning around and wincing. "Gotenks, you missed one," he said, though it was already too late.   
  
A split second later, a rather disoriented looking Buu, head upside down on his shoulders, was standing. The ash had all seemingly vanished into his boots as well. "Grand, even though we blasted him, it would`ve only delayed him a bit," Zangya grumbled with annoyance. "That was both highly traumatic and exquisitely painful," Buu stated, reaching up and twisting his head into place properly. "But I`m over it now."   
  
"You`re as tough as you are ugly," Gotenks replied sardonically. "Better to be tough and ugly than shrimpy and weak," Buu replied sharply. "Shrimpy, maybe, but the day I`m weak is the day a girl willingly frenches you," Gotenks shot back with a shrug. "Unfortunately, the only girl left is Zangya, and we all know how _that_ changes the chances o-" Piccolo was cut off by a resoundingly stern, utterly casual smack across the back of the head.   
  
"I`m just going to kill you anyway, so why bother trying to fight?" Buu asked. "You couldn`t hit the broadside of a barn at point blank you big pinky headed ass sack," Gotenks replied, running his index finger along the bottom of his nose and then putting his hands on his hips. "Wanna bet?" Buu asked. "Twelve zenni!" Gotenks stated. "It`ll do," Buu replied, tail whipping upward and taking on a flash of pink and red. A narrow, pin-width beam of ki shot out from the tip, which Gotenks merely tilted his head out of the way to avoid.   
  
There was a small explosion.   
  
Gotenks turned around to see that Buu may have missed him, but he had definately hit something. Namely the house that served as the gateway between the Room of Spirit and Time and the only exit or entrance in or out of the pocket dimension.   
  
_ This ain't a song for the broken-hearted   
  
_ "You... Flaming pink idiot..." Gotenks muttered in disbelief, staring at the downed heap of rubble that had once been the small house Goten, Trunks and Zangya once called home. "We can`t get out now."   
  
_ No silent prayer for the faith-departed   
  
_ "At least he saved me the effort," Piccolo bristled with a shrug. "... Piccolo, did it ever occur to you that the rest of our lives are going to be spent doing nothing but hanging out with two kids who will both likely die of old age far before we do, and a big pink steroid-enhanced slab of chewed bubblegum?" Zangya asked with the most mundanely sarcastic tone of voice ever used. "... Shut up Zangya. Just shut up," Piccolo replied with a slight twitch.   
  
"Look on the bright side, at least Buu can`t have any candy without killing us and being entirely alone for the rest of eternity," Zangya finally said with a small shrug.   
  
_ I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd   
  
_ "No candy?" Buu asked, gaze automatically shooting from Gotenks - who was still staring at the remains of the small house like someone had just broken a priceless family relic - to Zangya. "No candy?!" He asked again.   
  
"No candy," Piccolo affirmed with a smirk.   
  
Buu twitched.   
  
_ You're gonna hear my voice   
  
_ "**_I CAN`T LIVE WITHOUT MY CANDY!!!_**" Buu screamed, rattling even Gotenks into turning to face him.   
  
"**_WHAT IS THE POINT OF LIFE WITH NO CANDY?! NO CAKE?! NO CHOCOLATE?!_**"   
  
"Dude, chill out... We have bigger things to worry about than candy," Gotenks pointed out dryly.   
  
_ When I shout it out loud   
  
_ "There is nothing more important than..." Buu paused, seeming to inflate himself to an extent that he was as wide as Fat Buu had been, then leaning forward and screaming again.   
  
"**_CANDY!!!_**"   
  
_ It's my life  
It's now or never  
I ain't gonna live forever  
I just want to live while I'm alive  
It's my life  
  
_ Gotenks had two reflexes that followed Buu`s words: The first was to scream like a little girl, the second was to instinctively lunge out of the way as a lopsided funnel of wind covered in pink lightning slashed through the air in a straight line, intensifying before seeming to come to a complete stop a few feet away.   
  
A hole had been torn in the fabric of space and time.   
  
"Well... That`s nice," Zangya muttered in disbelief. "Really," Piccolo added, watching as Buu poked and prodded the edges of the small hole before finally diving through after hearing the sounds of four people yelling in disbelief. "Crap," all three of the remaining occupants of the room said in unison as the portal closed.   
  
_ My heart is like an open highway  
Like Frankie said, I did it my way  
I just wanna live while I'm alive  
It's my life  
  
_ "Not as much as I`d have liked... But you`ll all do nicely enough," Buu stated, gingerly walking towards the gathering of four. Krillin stood ahead of Juu and Marron by about two feet, Popo was just standing off to the side with a nervous twitch. He had seen epic battles on the Look Out before, no less than three times in his long life. The first, around eight hundred years earlier, had been a battle between a previous Kami and the Earth`s last great demon king before Piccolo Daimou Senior, the second had been when Garlic Senior tried to take the position of Kami by force, and the third had been when his son, Garlic Junior, sought to corrupt the planet and everyone on it.   
  
Everytime, some major savior had come through at the last possible second. The first had been Popo himself, few people expected Divine Assistants to come fully equipped with extending, enchanted staffs, even fewer expected them to also know how to use them. The second time had been Piccolo Anglou(Popo`s little nickname for the last Kami), who had single handedly managed to plow through Garlic`s demon hordes and distract him long enough for the ailing Kami of the day to cast his failed would-have-been successor into the Dead Zone.   
  
The third had been the most spectacular, that one brought into play no less than three last-second-saviors, and Popo himself had again gotten involved.   
  
Unfortunately, those three wouldn`t be making a return appearance this time around. It was true that one of them was present, but he was the weakest. Another was apparently dead and the third was locked away in another dimension.   
_ "Sometimes I really do hate being immortal... Living long enough to grow complacently dependant on things has it`s disadvantages,"_ Popo thought with a rare annoyance, managing to steel himself to at least die fighting.   
  
"Can we talk?" Krillin asked nervously, trying to position himself directly ahead of Juuhachigou and Marron. Sure, Juu could still rip him limb from limb without breaking a sweat, but Krillin didn`t exactly try to think about that too much. "No more talk. I`ve had enough of that, let`s just eat," Buu replied in a near-growl that sent Marron into tears.   
  
Juu grimaced and lowered herself slightly, bringing Marron around and out of Buu`s sight.   
  
"Juu," Krillin began in a nearly hushed whisper. "I`m going to try and buy you guys a bit of time, hide or get off of the Look Out, and whatever you do - _don`t look back_," the former monk ordered through grit teeth. "Krillin..."   
  
"See you again someday, Hon, just don`t make it very soon, okay?" Krillin asked with a roguish smirk that seemed to look as far out of place in the current situation as he did in a marriage with Juuhachigou.   
  
"Alright..."   
  
"Bye Juu. I love you," Krillin stated before rocketting off of the tiling and literally throwing himself at Buu. "Have a snack!" He yelled, throwing his hands back to his sides and powering up for a Kakusandan at mid-way between Buu and his family.   
  
_ This is for the ones who stood their ground  
For Tommy and Gina who never backed down  
Tomorrow's getting harder make no mistake  
Luck ain't even lucky  
Got to make your own breaks  
  
_ Gotenks fell over sideways, breathing hard while Piccolo leaned himself against what was left of an hour glass support. Zangya was sitting across from them both, breathing hard as well. "This. Sucks," Gotenks muttered annoyedly, flinging himself back up and off of the ground and to his feet with a wobble. "We`ve been in here long enough for Gotenks to diffuse and fuse again - twice - and we still haven`t been able to open up so much as a pinhole," Piccolo growled in annoyance. "Ah, don`t give up yet you big green bastard, I have better plans than to spend my life stuck doing nothing but bickering with you," Zangya replied. "Just shut up midget."   
  
"Stringbean."   
  
"Grass bitch."   
  
"Tree hugger."   
  
"Point being?" Piccolo asked. "Nothing at all," Zangya replied with a snort, glancing over at Gotenks and quirking up an eyebrow. "Something wrong?" She asked, drawing Piccolo`s attention as well. "I didn`t want to have do this, I don`t like this transformation but... Oh well," Gotenks said, more to himself than anyone else.   
  
Both of the others were all but blown off of their feet by the forceful gold wind that roared up and off of the ground around Gotenks, howling loudly and throwing off streaks of blue lightning as the boy`s hair extended out, while his forehead seemed to become heavier, eyebrow hair fading out of existence and eyes glowing briefly as Gotenks unlocked the full extent of all of his power, even tinging red for a few seconds before finally ending the transformation with a brutal roar of ki, this time actually succeeding in knocking Zangya and Piccolo off of their feet.   
  
"Super Saiyan Three," the boy said with an oversized grin. "Always thought it made me look fugly though," he grumbled. "It makes you look like chibi mosher Piccolo. With hair," Zangya replied dryly, causing Piccolo to explode out of a pile of rubble. "_**I`M NOT THAT UGLY!!!**_" Piccolo complained loudly. "Whatever," both Zangya and Gotenks answered, just as the Fusion began to draw in breath. "Since I can`t keep this up for very long..."   
  
With a reality warping scream, Gotenks bent forward again, hair blowing back into the air as blue lightning shot off of the similarly colored wind funnel that exitted out mouth, hitting the same point that Buu`s scream had impacted before the barrier between dimensions against tore open like nothing, shattering against the force that the impossibly young Super Saiyan Three had put against it. "Come on wankers, I`m not gonna come and bust you out if you don`t!" Gotenks shouted, lunging through the hole in an action followed by Zangya and Piccolo both, who were also both complaining about Gotenks` habit of calling anything that moved a wanker.   
  
_ It's my life  
And it's now or never  
I ain't gonna live forever  
I just want to live while I'm alive  
It's my life  
  
_ A second later, all three landed - be it on their feet or their rear ends - on the tiled ground of the Look Out. The palace had gained a few new holes in it`s build, there was a trench running along the ground and a few nearby craters with a Krillin-sized body imprint in one of the outer walls but that aside, the only out of place thing was the gigantic pink figure seated inside of a crater, licking chocolate off of his fingers.   
  
"Uh... Where did everyone go?" Gotenks asked, the only one of the three who had landed on his feet. Buu was slow to answer, merely hauling himself up and turning around, licking the chocolate off of his lips with a smug grin and patting his stomach. "I ate them," he replied happily. "... Even my mom?! And my grand-dad?!" Gotenks yelped. "Oh... Them? I didn`t eat them," Buu replied, cracking his neck to either side. He had identified the Ox King and Bulma as Gotenks` relatives due to the similar scents they all had.   
  
"Instead, I smashed them into blood stains," Buu added at Gotenks` sigh of relief, an expression which promptly became a glare of anger. "Now you`ve done it," Gotenks growled ferally. "Now you have _done it_..."  
  
"Done what?" Buu asked, feigning innocence. "You sir, have perfectly _**PISSED ME OFF!**_" Gotenks screamed before diving forward, catching Buu off gaurd and literally punching his face out of the right side of his head.   
  
"Ow," Buu growled as his face slid back into position, shaking out his head and turning to glare at Gotenks, who had landed and blurred out only to reappear behind him. Buu`s body contorted painfully around the Fusion`s arm, just as Gotenks` fist tore out of Buu`s stomach. "Have I made myself clear yet?" Gotenks asked, tearing his arm out of Buu`s side and backhanding him across the shoulder and into the cheek, warping Buu`s face as a result of the impact.   
  
The demon hobbled away, deformed from the numerous impacts across it`s body and head for several seconds before violently shaking them out. "That wasn`t very nice," Buu growled. "Neither was killing and eating my friends and family you punk pain in hemorrhoids I don`t even _have_ yet!" Gotenks shot back.   
  
"You _would_ develop a hemorrhoid problem, wouldn`t you?" Buu asked.   
  
"That`s none of your business!" Gotenks paused. "Hey wait, do you even know what a hemorrhoid is?" He asked curiously. "No, do you?" Buu replied. "... Hey! Piccolo! What`s a hemorrhoid!?"   
  
"How the Hell should I know?! Just fight already!" Piccolo answered sternly.   
  
"So much for that," Gotenks mumbled out. "Well, are we going to fight or continue talking?" Buu asked. "I much more enjoyed verbally humiliating you, but oh well," Gotenks said with a shrug, promptly lowering into a fighting stance. "Shall we?" Gotenks asked. "About time," Buu replied.   
_ My heart is like an open highway  
Like Frankie said, I did it my way  
I just want to live while I'm alive  
'Cause it's my life  
  
_ The Look Out shuddered violently as the two combatants locked horns again, shattering tiling and blowing paint off of walls from the sheer force exerted by the two throwing off excess energy, igniting cement from their auras alone as the two clashed. Gotenks held Buu back for several seconds, surprising the seasoned demon warrior again and again by blocking almost all of his incoming blows and barely being phased by what little actually got through, but in the end, Buu won out, slipping a punch past Gotenks` blocks and nailing him square in the jaw before grabbing the boy by his lower right leg and slinging him straight through the top of the Look Out, right down through some fifty floors and straight through the bottom, sending debris into orbit around the ancient structure.   
  
Gotenks continued onward, going straight down into the lower atmosphere before stopping on willpower alone, hovering briefly while recovering his senses.   
  
"That smarts," he complained with more annoyance than actual pain, even while smacking off dust and dirt from his brief 'tour of Heaven.' "But now...   
  
_ Better stand tall when they're calling you out  
Don't bend, don't break, baby, don't back down  
  
_ "It`s **_PAYBACK TIME!_**"   
  
The ground almost three miles below shattered in a miles-wide crater caused by Gotenks` departure as he flew back towards the Look Out, catching Buu off gaurd once more - along with both Zangya and Piccolo in the process - and tearing back out of the top level of the Look Out with a roar, one hand drawn back and glowing a fiery shade of lime green. "Have a snack!" Gotenks shouted joyously, ramming his fist, index finger first, straight down Buu`s throat and tearing right through him as a result, landing with a role behind the pink demon as the full measure of the attack came into play, blowing Buu into small chunks an instant later.   
  
"Bakunetsu God Finger," Gotenks announced cheerfully, holding up his middle finger in Buu`s direction. "Those kids watch _way_ too much G Gundam," Zangya commented dryly.   
  
"Will you stop blowing me up already?!" Buu asked, regenerating into a puddle of slop with a face before returning to his normal shape, shaking bits and pieces of tiling out of his ears in the process. "But you look better as little chunklets of chewed up, spit out bubblegum!" Gotenks whined. "But that`s okay, I just have _**FIFTY THOUSAND MORE WAYS OF BLASTING THE BLUE HELL OUT OF YOU!!!**_" He added to his words, grinning in that highly psychotic way that just screamed 'No, I`m not lying... God help you.'   
  
Buu just twitched.   
  
"**_BURNING BELCH FROM HELL!!!_**" Gotenks roared, vomitting out a stream of fire at Buu, who sidestepped out of the way with an annoyed, drab expression on his face. The palace lost it`s East wing. Piccolo facefaulted. "Not again..."   
  
"_**RABID SUPER GHOST ATTACK DOG!!!**_" Gotenks howled, pressing one finger to the side of his nose and blowing what looked like a puff of cream-colored smoke out onto the ground. Unlike the earlier Super Ghost Kamikazes, this one formed up into a small, irate looking ghost-chihuahua with a nervous twitch and foam around the mouth. Buu cringed.   
  
"Kill boy, kill!" Gotenks ordered. The twiggy little ghost dashed forward and jumped at Buu, who looked ready to dive straight down through the Look Out but decided against it at the last second, throwing his arm out and blindly trying to blast the creature out of existence.   
  
And then he felt an odd grinding motion against his leg, just below the knee. Buu glanced down with another twitch. "What... Is it doing?" He asked. "... Bad dog! Bad dog! You`re _supposed_ to tear him limb from limb, _not_ hump his shin!" Gotenks shouted annoyedly.   
  
"... Feh, die," Buu growled, throwing a blast into the ghost dog and annihilating it. Along with the corresponding parts of the Look Out from the top to the bottom. "Moving along now," Buu muttered, turning towards Gotenks and grinning. "I`m going to kill you now..."   
  
"What`s that white stuff on your boot?"   
  
"... That kid has some serious issues about creating his moves," Zangya muttered in near-disdain. Bad enough with the Super Ghost Kamikazes, but come on... Piccolo on the other hand was still staring at the trashed section of the palace.   
  
"**_STRAWBERRY PLASMA SHORTCAKE WITH SPRIN_**-kles," Gotenks managed to wheeze out the last part as Buu smashed his fist into his gut, cutting off the attack before it could ever even begin. "Ahh, so nice to actually see you _shut up_ for five seconds," Buu commented, enjoying the serene peace that followed for all of those alloted five seconds before Gotenks blurred back and appeared a good distance away on the edge of the Look Out, standing at the ready with his hands held back at his side .   
  
"Mind if I try one more?" He asked. "Go for it if it isn`t stupid," Buu replied. "Oh, you`ll like this one, trust me," Gotenks replied with a sick little grin.   
  
"**_LUNAR BOWLING BALL!!!_**" Gotenks screamed, flinging his hands forward, both aimed right at Buu, standing in the posture of a professional bowler.   
  
Nothing happened.   
  
Gotenks narrowed his eyes.   
  
Nothing happened.   
  
Buu yawned and scratched his side.   
  
Nothing happened.   
  
"Well?" Buu asked. "Give it a minute, it isn`t my fastest attack," Gotenks replied dryly, standing up straight and glancing to the right, hands on his hips. "Come on already..." He grumbled, just as a loud thunder shattered the silence of the moment. Buu glanced up in the direction Gotenks was staring in, an action replicated by Zangya and a still shocked Piccolo.   
  
_ It's my life  
And it's now or never  
'Cause I ain't gonna live forever  
I just want to live while I'm alive  
It's my life  
  
_ "Holy mother of god," Zangya muttered, grabbing Piccolo by the mantle and darting towards the direction Gotenks was in. "Are you absolutely insane?!" Zangya yelled as Gotenks cackled and Buu dashed to the opposite end of the Look Out. "_**SUCK ON THAT, PINKY! AHAHAHAHA!!!**_"   
  
"That little fucking lunatic," Piccolo managed to get out, just in time to get his feet on the tiling and run on his own, swatting Zangya`s hand off of his cape`s mantle and running along after her. "Ya think?!" Zangya asked as the rumbling sound of thunder grew louder and louder until...   
  
A moon scraped along the surface of the Look Out, ripping the remains of the palace and a significant chunk of the main structure out with it, causing the remaining portion of the huge satellite to split into two lopsided pieces whilst the moon continued on, passing back out of the atmosphere and vanishing into whatever parallel dimension that had spawned it.   
  
"Daddy likes!" Buu shouted enthusiastically at the attack that had just about made a bubblegum flavored pancake out of him.   
  
"**_WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!_**" Piccolo demanded irately. "Ah quiet, you know you enjoyed the show," Gotenks answered smugly before leaning to his side and vanishing off of the ground, causing tiles to shatter up into the air and vaporize as he made his way back over to Buu, landing a firm sucker punch on the other fighter`s cheek.   
  
_ My heart is like an open highway  
Like Frankie said, I did it my way  
I just want to live while I'm alive  
'Cause it's my life!  
  
_ "I guess you have to hand him some credit for inventiveness," Zangya commented with a shake of the head. "That little bastard just tore Heaven apart trying to impress someone he should be busier trying to kill! How in the blue hell is that inventive?!" Piccolo demanded, though it all seemed to go in one ear and out the other.   
  
With another twitch, Piccolo turned to watch the battle as Gotenks and Buu drifted off of the opposite section of the _former_ Look Out, to a point in the middle of the distance between them, exchanging blows and insults at a blurred rate, too quickly for even individual sounds to be picked up, even too quickly for Piccolo to see singular impacts and the shockwaves they made.   
  
And at around that moment, Piccolo Daimou Junior had something of an epiphany.   
  
Around that moment, Piccolo Daimou Junior realized he had knowingly put the fate of the universe into an absolute freaking lunatic kid with a head as big as his imagination and enough power to make it all happen.   
  
"... Whatever sick bastard is pulling the strings of fate to make this all happen, I hope he burns in Hell," Piccolo muttered.   
  


_ End Part Twenty-Six  
  
_

* * *

  
  
**Author`s Note:** *Nice and crispy.* Love ya too, Piccolo!  
  
**Mystic SSJ3 Gohan:** Glad you agree... For some reason I just see him having the time of his life down in Hell, just because he`s such a bastard that he`d fit right in.  
  
**Professor Authordude:** Someone actually liked the names! YAY!  
  
Oh, and **_BOB_**, it`s what`s for dinner! *Flings a screaming Rou Dai Kaioshin onto the table and starts sharpening the steak knives.*  
  
**diamondgirl:** Two people liked the names! **YAY!** As for the Largo ghost, go to www.megatokyo.com and read up through the entire webcomic. It`s worth the time, trust me... Even if you aren`t a L33t Sp34ker.  
  
**Demas:** Three people liked the names! **_YAY!!!_** And yes... PH34R T3H L33T M4ST4!!!  
  
That`s all for now, enjoy and leave a review. Sh33p out, see ya next time! 


	28. The End of the Line

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations**  
_ The End of the Line _  
  
  
  


"Oversized, pinko Communistic gnome on space crack!"   
  
An explosion.   
  
"Shut up you ugly little bastard!"   
  
A flurry of impacts, throwing off kiloton shockwaves from light jabs and kicks.   
  
"Ugly?! You`re calling _me_ ugly?! For god`s sake man, you`ve got a _dick_ growing out of your _forehead_!"   
  
Several whip-like strikes, each of them missing badly and the final attempt ending with a sound crumple from a kick hard enough to shatter a mountainside into dust.   
  
"**_WILL SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IN THE HELL A DICK IS?!_**"   
  
A thunderous impact, blocked by a forearm as the two combatants paused, one in morbid shock, the other in angered curiosity.   
  
"Dude... You don`t... Uhm... Well... Hmm..."   
  
"Oh shut up and die," Buu growled.   
  
Another horrendous clash and a small body went thrashing through the Western section of the Look Out, carving out a visible tunnel through the levels of the severed structure on it`s way down before stopping almost a mile down.   
  
_ When the siren's flash is gone  
And we're left to carry on  
All the memories are too few  
  
"Ow,"_ Gotenks grumbled in thought, wiping a trickle of blood from his lower lip and then throwing his entire body back as if readying to run in a fairly cartoonish sort of pose. "_**I HAVE NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT!!!**_" Gotenks screamed, loudly enough that it reached Buu even through the distance between them, followed seconds later by a viciously paced assault as Gotenks covered the distance to face Buu at point blank again, tearing another gaping tunnel through the side of the Western section of the Look Out, unleashing a flurry of kicks and punches so intense that the mere air between the two combatants distorted.   
  
"Then _fight_, dumb ass!" Buu shouted, nimbly dodging out of the way of Gotenks` thousandth punch only to be caught in the cheek by the resultant backhand, which threw the demon off balance and higher than he had been, allowing Gotenks to swiftly grab him by the ankle. "Don`t mind if I do, dick-head!" Gotenks shouted, twirling around in a miniature cyclone before chucking Buu through the Eastern section of the Look Out, narrowly missing Piccolo and Zangya in the attempt.   
  
Buu tore straight through the remains of the ancient structure and halted himself almost four miles down through the atmosphere, having left various Buu-shaped holes in well over a dozen clouds on the way down, the sheer force of the throw continuing on without him to leave a Buu-shaped imprint on the ground.   
  
"Mangy little twerp," Buu cursed, rushing back through the air and tearing yet another hole through the Look Out`s remains in his attempts to smash Gotenks, who was caught off gaurd and promptly smacked through the air by Buu, only to catch himself just shy of passing through the belt of debris currently orbiting the remains of the ancient structure.   
  
"You hit like a girl!" Gotenks shouted. "... What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Buu yelled in reply. "... _**DAMN IT, LEARN TO BE INSULTED YOU THICK HEADED DOLT!**_" Gotenks flailed.   
  
"... Riiiight," Buu quirked up a hairless brow before blurring out and reappearing across from Gotenks, standing upside down on another piece of debris. "At least now you`re fighting," the demon commented snobbishly. "Yes well... I got bored of toying with you," Gotenks shrugged, only to be caught off gaurd as a fist implanted itself in his cheek. "... Cheap... Really... Cheap..."   
  
That said, Gotenks recovered from the attack quite nicely, darting back and wiping his cheek off with a sigh, only to rush forward an instant later and lash out, trying to punch Buu`s head down into his body. The demon jumped back, landing on another piece of floating debris and allowing his would-be attacker to annihilate the chunk he had formerly been standing on. "Stand still," Gotenks ordered sternly, trying the attack again, though with different results.   
  
Whereas before, Buu had been the one to dodge, he attacked first, literally extending a leg out to try and kick Gotenks across the chest, but the Fusion dove downward, slamming back up through the debris that Buu stood on and roughly decking the demon squarely across the face with all that he could put into one punch. "Neener, neener, neener!" Gotenks taunted, swiftly kicking Buu in the chin and touching down on the same piece of debris his foe had originally claimed.   
  
"I... Hate... You..." Buu growled, lowering back down onto another piece of debris and snarling angrily. "But I just loooooove you," Gotenks lied through his teeth with a flashy, oversized grin. Buu twitched.   
  
_ When the pastor's music plays  
And that casket rolls away  
I could live again if you  
Just stay alive for me  
  
_ "**_DIE!!!_**" Buu screamed. Almost immediately, Gotenks flenched and turned towards the East, darting off of his claimed chunk of debris and landing roughly on the West, kicking up a small maelstrom of ripped up tiling before promptly jumping over the gap between East and West, landing solidly next to Zangya and Piccolo before grabbing both. "I do believe it`s time we run for our lives, lady and... Thing," Gotenks announced sharply, promptly blasting off of the Look Out and dragging both of the others along with him by default.   
  
_ Please stay now, you left me here alone - it's the end of the line  
Please stay I can't make it on my own - it's the end of the line  
Make it on my own  
It's the end of the line  
  
_ The Look Out`s remains were promptly consumed by a pink ball of fire five miles wide in all directions.   
  
"Anyone else need a change of pants?" Zangya joked while trying to get Gotenks` hands off of her hair. It wasn`t that she didn`t appreciate being saved being saved from what would`ve been an otherwise-painfully quick death, but she didn`t exactly like being dragged along at speeds in excess of mach seven or eight by her _hair_ to do it. "Not really," Piccolo mumbled, finally prying his cape loose with a loud rip and a groan. "I hate having to replace these things," he muttered annoyedly, simply willing the cape to mend instead of bothering to replace it. "Lucky you, I think I just lost eight years of hair growth in three seconds," Zangya complained.   
  
"So much for adults being mature enough to show gratitude," Gotenks commented with a sigh. "Is Buu dead?" He asked after another few seconds, watching the explosion continue expanding another mile and then stop, swirling around at an unbelievable speed. "I can`t tell through the distortion in his ki pattern from the explosion," Piccolo growled. "What about you?" He asked at Zangya. "I`m just as blind as the great King Stringbean," Zangya answered. "Damn," Gotenks replied, leaning forward slightly as the explosion began to implode on itself.   
  
"... It _is_ getting smaller," he commented to himself, floating ahead of Piccolo and Zangya by several feet.   
  
A few seconds passed and then...   
  
Gotenks froze in mid-air as Buu reappeared, trailed by a beam of pink light coming from the core of the explosion to plant a single hard punch into the cheek of the young fighter. "See you on the other side," Buu commented as Gotenks suddenly split off of his fist and went zinging out into the skies once again, leaving behind sonic booms by the truckload as Buu cracked his neck and took a deep breath, glancing shrewdly over at Piccolo and Zangya.   
  
"Who knew that biding my time could be such fun?" He asked cryptically before contorting backwards and dropping straight down, leaving the other two to hover there in a perplexed state, watching as Buu slammed into the ground hard enough to throw up a fairly large dust cloud, only to continue burrowing even after that.   
  
"Ever have one of those days where you feel so outclassed that you have to wonder just why you waste effort in bothering with these things anymore?" Zangya asked dejectedly. "Every single day," Piccolo replied with the same tone.   
  
_ Now that you are dead and gone  
And I'm left to carry on  
I could never smile cause you  
Won't stay alive for me  
  
_ "Is the power-up done yet?" Gohan asked with a sigh, trying to focus on Bob once again while Videl leaned against his back with her own, watching Shin, Kibito and Goku from the hilltop. "Almost... But so ya know, I`m not even putting a drop in the bucket here," Bob stated plainly. "... What do you mean by that?" Gohan asked, head cocked to the side while Videl turned around. "What I just said," Bob replied. "... Huh?" Videl asked. "Kids these days are thick as hell," Bob complained to himself before explaining a bit.   
  
"Remember when I told you I wasn`t going to be able to draw out _all_ your power?" Bob asked.   
  
"Yeah," Gohan replied with a nod. "Well, it turns out I ain`t even crackin` the half-way mark. If I tried bringing it all out now, it`d take a year and it`d probably kill you since you wouldn`t have the chance to adapt to it all," Bob explained. "... How far along are you, anyway?" Gohan asked. "With the ritual? Almost done with drawing out as much of your power as I safely can... With your actual full limit? I haven`t gotten more than a tenth out - at best. And that`s just the energy I can actually _find_."   
  
"... Well... That`s nice..." Gohan mumbled soberly. "Isn`t it though?" Bob asked with a strange little grin. Videl was just allowing her jaw to hang open while Goku and Shin were yelling out cheers for Gotenks.   
  
_ Finally,  
Your final resting day  
Is without me  
I weep  
And think of brighter days  
What about me?   
  
_ Buu tore out of the ground with a roar, rushing up through the air at speeds too high for a normal person to even survive, lashing out with a wild kick only to find that the impact was against something as soft and fleeting as a feather, a little cold to the touch and a bit less 'physical' than he had expected. He heard a psychotic little giggle at the moment of impact.   
  
That was when Buu realized that he had just been had. Again.   
  
The explosion to follow sent Buu tumbling down into the street, landing with cratering force that shattered concrete and sent him spiralling down through the ground beneath the deserted area by almost a hundred feet, causing his body to liquify on impact as a self-preservation mechanism. There was a loud cackle as Gotenks popped up out of an open manhole, grinning from ear to ear like a lunatic.   
  
"You tunneled all the way through the planet just to try and hit me but instead, you got _**KAMIKAZED**_, punk!" Gotenks cackled as Buu puddled up out of the crater and gradually regenerated to his normal state with a twitch, just as Zangya and Piccolo finally emerged through the six foot wide tunnel that Buu had just gouged from one side of the Earth to the next, followed by a tortured pillar of lava.   
  
"Nice shortcut," Zangya commented, touching down and dusting her boots off while Piccolo merely grumbled to himself. "Oh, don`t mind him, he just burnt his shoes, nothing to be worried about," Zangya explained sardonically, tapping the soot from the edges of her shoulder pads. "Beats almost having my head set on fire," Piccolo growled. "Ah shut up or I`ll sodomize you with a blender," Zangya ordered annoyedly.   
  
"This has really been quite fun and all, but I think it`s time to end it," Buu growled, lunging forward and punching Gotenks squarely in the stomach, hard enough that the boy almost vomitted blood onto his arm, only to grab Buu by the wrist and slam him down into the ground with a skid. "Agreed," Gotenks finally stated, hopping back several feet and coming to a stop with a twist, hands held back to his side. "Now, I`m going to show you a nice move I`ve been saving just to blow your ass out of this universe," Gotenks stated cheekily.   
  
Buu growled lowly and leaned forward, turning around and shaking his head free of the daze that Gotenks had put on him over the past few minutes. "Big Bang..." The signature glow that often heralded Vegeta`s second-most favored attack promptly shot up around Gotenks, interwoven with a glow of another signature attack, but this one was most certainly _not_ that of Vegeta.   
  
"Kame..."   
  
"... Since when did Goten and Trunks start putting together Goku and Vegeta`s attacks?" Piccolo asked dryly as the entire area took on a blue-gold shift, bright as day. Buu simply stood there and snarled lightly.   
  
"_Hame_..."   
  
After a few seconds, Buu stopped snarling and smiled cryptically, crossing his arms over his chest and cracking his neck to either side expectantly, just as Gotenks threw his arms forward, hands held together, overlapping each other, fingers splayed as wide apart as the boy could manage, surrounded by a secondary aura that was trailing along strings of electricity from the movement, just as the sphere that was going to turn into a beam finished forming.   
  
"**_HA!!!_**" "HA!!!"   
  
Unfortunately, Gotenks` timing wasn`t exactly the greatest. Buu simply smirked and threw his arms out, smacking both of the two severely weakened attacks skyward, where they continued on and out into space for some distance before detonating somewhere between the Earth and Mars, a blast that looked like fireworks to the crowd on the ground. Piccolo and Zangya were both too busy facefaulting to look up though, staring at where Gotenks had formerly been standing in annoyed shock.   
  
Instead of Gotenks though, there were now Goten and Trunks. Both of whom were rapidly fading out of the second level of Super Saiyan, then right out of the first and back to their normal states, sharing a more-than-slightly-mortified expression.   
  
"That`s what I thought," Buu grinned.   
  
  
"Ah crap, _**GOTENKS DIFFUSED!**_" Goku exclaimed worriedly, glancing over at the trio up on the hilltop a short distance away. It was probably one of the few times in his adult life that his behavior had ever bordered on frantic as he stood up straight and waited for a reply.   
  
"Well?" Gohan asked, cynically keeping calm despite obviously being a bit stressed. "Well what?" Bob asked. "Is the power-up done yet?" Gohan and Videl asked in the same sentence. "Oh, that... Yep, just finished," Bob lied. He had been done with the actual power-up for about five minutes, using the extra time to allow Gohan`s body the chance to adapt to the changes it had just gone through.   
  
That and it was just more dramatic.   
  
"Okay then," Gohan replied, already halfway off of his feet and running towards Kibito, the only person he thought was capable of bringing him back home without shattering any laws of the afterlife at this point.   
  
But instead, he stopped, backpedaling in the literal sense and sheepishly rubbing the back of his head. "How do I access all of the power you unlocked, anyway?" He asked while Videl got to her feet, followed a few seconds later by the old Kaioshin. "You know how you accessed that Super Saiyan power earlier?" Bob asked. "Yeah?" Gohan cocked his head to the side. "Do the exact opposite of what you would normally do. Clear your head, focus on a calm state of mind and let loose," the old god explained. "And one more thing, _**DON`T**_ combine this power with any of your other two transformations. I don`t care how bad the need is, do it and you run the risk of blowing yourself up... Along with the surrounding solar system and anything else unfortunate enough to be within a few dozens of lightyears," he warned.   
  
"I`ll remember that," Gohan replied dryly before starting to try out his new strength. "... Oh for my sake, you could at least have the decency to let me and your girlfriend get the hell out of the way!" Bob yelled dejectedly, not even bothering to try and run as he and Videl were promptly blown right off of their feet, sending one to crash into the tree next to Goku and Shin and the other to rebound off of Kibito`s chest and land on her feet, virtually unscathed by the grace of whatever god might or might not have been higher up than the remaining Kaioshin.   
  
_ "Here I go,"_ Gohan thought to himself, closing his eyes and feeling the changes start to take place. The most obvious were the fact that he could almost feel himself getting a small amount taller, he could also feel his body becoming a great deal stronger. His senses picked up, his thoughts quickened, blood raced and ki changed at the fundamental levels to extremes his brain could only vaguely register for several seconds before even that seemed to change.   
  
Outside of his body though, the changes were far less visible but no less profound, for the teen who had stood atop a hilltop garbed like some ancient Knight had become enveloped in a pillar of shredded grass and supercharged ki, an aura as tall as the pillar the Zet Sword had originally rested on, shaded a deep combination of orange and blue, topped off by bolts of golden lightning that arced down from the skies above, converging solidly on what was now only a vague silhouette of what had been a teenager.   
  
On the sidelines, the only one not knocked over was also the only one who truly expected what was happening. Goku was filled with a flurry of emotions ranging on frantic worry about one son to awe and pride about the second, having been the only one who was still standing not on strength, but because he had knowingly gotten ready for it. Shin was surprised, as was Kibito, Videl was just trying to avoid being thrown in the lower atmosphere and Bob was still getting nice and cozy with the tree he had slammed into.   
  
Seconds more passed as the pillar of light suddenly began to twist into a multi-colored tornado, which promptly began to thin down more and more by the second until finally, it was all over. Gohan stood alone on the newly-stripped hilltop, surrounded by falling shreds of grass, staring at his own hands. The physical changes were only vaguely apparent to Shin, Kibito and Bob, but Videl and Goku both could pick them out blindfolded.   
  
His hair had risen up as if it was in the second level of Super Saiyan, but it also hadn`t changed color at all. If anything, it was probably darker now. His pupils looked larger from a distance, still black as ever, until closer inspection yielded that his eyes had finally undergone a change of their own, as they actually had extremely dark green irises now, with the change of color only visible under the proper lighting. His neck looked a bit thicker, his body had obviously become more athletic looking and his jawbone now looked a bit older, a good deal stronger and more rounded off.   
  
It was like staring at a timewarp and watching a seventeen year old turn into a man he wasn`t going to become for another five or six years.   
  
"... Man," Gohan mumbled to himself, a bit caught up in his own changes. It had felt like he had been asleep his entire life only to be jarred awake in a matter of minutes. "I didn`t think it would be like this," he commented in disbelief, looking up from his hands and glancing down sideways to the crowd gathered at the base of the hilltop.   
  
Several seconds passed as the oldest of Goku`s sons made his way down the hilltop, pausing in front of his father and the girl he had been told, and honestly knew, was his soulmate. "... I guess this is it, huh?" Gohan asked. "Yeah. We won`t meet up again until you die," Goku replied with a seriously out-of-place smirk. "But I have a funny feeling you`ll be living at least as long as you`re great grandfather did, just don`t go getting stepped on," Goku ordered with that same smirk, lightening things up severely.   
  
"Right... Hey Dad?" Gohan asked. "What?" Goku replied. "Sorry," the younger Son stated. "I guess I let things really go to my head these past few years an-" "Ah shut up while you`re ahead, you`re too young to be feeling regret over being angry. I screwed up and I know that, but from now on, it`s your job to protect the Earth. I`m counting on you, your mother`s counting on you, your brother and Piccolo, Trunks and Bulma and everyone else..."   
  
"And me," Videl cut in, stealing a very rare little bit of affection and placing a kiss on Gohan`s cheek. Oh, it wasn`t one of those fangirl moments most people would expect, Videl Satan just had a slight way about her that meant she was going to do what she felt like doing, heedless of consequence, not giving much of a damn what those around her thought. "Right... Sorry I couldn`t protect you... Again," Gohan replied dryly, shrugging it off a few seconds later. "But I`ll make up for it," he promised.   
  
"We both know you will," Goku cut back in. "Now get out there and show Majin Buu why you don`t screw with us Earthlings and get away with it," he stated, catching Gohan off gaurd and yanking the teen into a bearhug that would probably kill the average grizzly in a few seconds. "Good luck, Gohan."   
  
"Thanks," Gohan stated, drawing out of the hug a few seconds later and glancing around for a certain someone.   
  
"Hey Kibito!" Gohan shouted, trying to rouse the large pink god off of the ground. Kibito answered with a grunt, standing up and dusting himself off. "Let`s go, shall we?" The youth asked, drawing only a nod from the aged Dai Kaio. "Hold up, what about me?" Shin interrupted. "I have as much a right as anyone to transport you to Earth and you know that," he stated sternly. "The universe needs a better overlord than that senile old fruit," Gohan replied dryly. "... What he means to say is that while I am expendable to an extent, you are not," Kibito said, translating Gohan`s vague insult at Bob to a more proper sort of explanation.   
  
Shin sighed heavily. "Alright, alright... Just don`t get yourself killed," he grumbled sourly. "I won`t," Kibito replied with a nod, placing a hand on Gohan`s shoulder and making ready to leave.   
  
"Oh and Videl..."   
  
"Yeah?" Videl asked, head tilted to the side.   
  
"I love you," Gohan stated cheekily, just as he and Kibito vanished, leaving the girl both infuriated and flattered in the same split second. "Yanno... I was always wondering when he`d try something like that," Goku commented unsurprisedly, turning back to the crystal ball and plopping down anxiously, watching as Piccolo and Zangya tried to keep Goten and Trunks composed, though Goten seemed far readier to die despite his age.   
  
That unnerved him. Badly.   
  
_ You can't take back, the one mistake  
That still lives on after life it takes  
In that one day, that changed our lives  
And bitter memories are left behind   
  
_ "We`ll do the best that we can," Piccolo stated, lowering himself down a bit while standing next to Goten. "Which means we`ll probably just die with you," Zangya finished the unsaid part of the sentence, lowering herself down into a fighting stance next to Trunks as the four made ready to have their last stand. "Gee... How encouraging," Trunks growled. "Look at it this way," Goten began. "At least if we die, we`ll see our families again... Bar the fact that Uncle Veggie`s probably in Hell, but still," he said with as much confidence as he could have in the present situation.   
  
"Goten."   
  
"What?"   
  
"Just shut up, will ya?" Trunks asked annoyedly. "Not my fault you can`t look on the bright side," Goten grumbled. "Get ready," Piccolo warned, not paying attention to the fact that Zangya was about to grasp the gem of her necklace, hesitating severely in the process.   
  
Buu only shook his head, plopping down onto the concrete and leaning forward, staring at the gravel.   
  
_ Please stay now, you left me here alone - it's the end of the line  
Please stay I can't make it on my own - it's the end of the line  
Make it on my own  
  
_ With a flare of light, Kibito and Gohan appeared on a desert hilltop somewhere out in the North-West region of the world, alone except for the winds that whipped around them. "That was quite the good-bye," Kibito smirked. "Yeah, who knew I actually had any style?" Gohan replied sarcastically. "Good luck with your battle, Gohan," Kibito started to leave, only to pause at the shake of the head the other gave him.   
  
"What do you need?" Kibito asked, almost amused. "I`d like you to change my clothes to the same kind of douji my dad was wearing back there," Gohan explained. "Ah... Paying tribute before a battle?" Kibito asked with a genuine smirk. "Sorta... I guess it`s a tribute and some penance over how I acted to him earlier," Gohan answered. "I see. You do him a great honor, you know," Kibito replied, holding his hands out and speaking again. "Hold still."   
  
There was a loud crack of sound and a flash of energy and Gohan found himself standing in the exact same douji-styled outfit as his father, differing only in the fact that his blue undershirt was just a bit darker. "Yeah, thanks," Gohan said with another nod. "Anytime. We`ll all be cheering for you," Kibito stated. "Oh, and one more thing," Gohan sheepishly remembered. "Yes?" Kibito asked, patience actually beginning to wane. "Think you can teleport to my friends and family who just died and give them a crystal ball to watch the battle?" Gohan asked.   
  
"Easily done. Take care," Kibito said, finally managing to leave without interruption.   
  
Gohan stood alone once again, glancing around for a few seconds before locking his gaze South-East.   
  
"Showtime..." He said to himself, bending forward a bit and then launching off of the hilltop with an Earth shattering sonic boom.   
  
_ It's the end of the line  
  


End Part Twenty-Seven  
  


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_ **Author`s Note:** Meh heh heh... CLIFFHANGER!   
  
**Mont0r:** Glad ya liked it. I had one hell of a blast writing down the last chapter yanno... Now all my friends keep copying the "Warble" suicide move in online chats though XD  
  
**perrin:** Thanks for the praise but Zangya`s not truly an original character. I`ve basically taken the original version from DBZ movie #9 and through a few random Plot Devices™ and well timed Character Shielding™ developed her off of the original. Definately glad so many people like how she`s developed though :D  
  
**cobra:** Yeah well, just picture someone laughing insanely while writing every single one of them down... Along with that "50,000 MORE WAYS OF BLASTING THE BLUE HELL OUT OF YOU!" comment.  
  
**Rayearth010:** Piccolo and Zangya`s endless bickering is one of the things that`ve made the series so fun to write about. Glad ya like how it`s turned out. And thanks for your first review :D  
  
**Professor Authordude:** *Whilst picking his teeth with one of Bob`s rib bones.* Agreed.  
  
Oh and **_BOB!_**   
  
**diamongirl:** Yeah, Bon Jovi really isn`t one of my favorites. They have two songs I like though and the one I used in Generations just fit very well with what I intended. *Tosses her a Leg of Bob.*  
  
**shadowwolf75:** Yep.  
  
**TheGuardian2003:** Congratulations on giving me my first true flame. Now, here are a few pointers for you if you want to be negative about this story or anything else I`ve done:  
  
** 1:** Learn how to be negative without resorting to cussing. Yes, I know this is hard but if you want the actual point to get across, **learn it**.  
  
**2:** Dragonball Z doesn`t stand for anything. It`s merely a form of entertainment for 13-16 year olds - mainly males despite a large female following as well. It isn`t intended to convey any sort of message, and anyone who thinks it is obviously has a **bit** too much time on their hands.  
  
**3:** Actually read the story before you try flaming for it. I seriously doubt you read jack shit past the first few chapters, otherwise you`d have seen Cell Junior(read Opaque Portents if you intend to claim me ripping that idea off too. I was the first, to my knowledge, to have done such a thing), Gohan`s trip to hell and a good many other things. This story is meant to show what the Buu saga might have been like under different circumstances, not rewrite it completely and entirely.  
  
**4:** There`s something called having guts. Unlike you, I have the guts to put my work up on this website for people to read and either hate or like, exposing myself to their criticisms by default. You have no grounds to call my writing crap when you`re apparently too much of a coward to put your own up online as well. Take some lessons from masters like H3ll and Sporonox, least they can back themselves up(and very well, might I add).  
  
That`s all for now folks, Sh33p out! Enjoy and see ya next time! 


	29. One Step Closer Redux

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


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** Hybrid Theory: Generations   
**_One Step Closer Redux   
  
  
_

"What`s he doing?" Goten asked quietly. "Looks like he`s just sorta... Sitting there staring at the ground," Trunks answered in the same tone, though the older boy was on the verge of running away when Buu finally looked up and stared straight at him for several seconds before raising an arm and gingerly watching as his own skin literally formed up into a morbid looking series of gooses wandering around on the surface of his arm.   
  
"Disgusting bastard," Zangya muttered. "I think I`m just gonna go die now," Trunks said to himself, not really hearing anything else. "Are we gonna attack or just sit here twiddling our thumbs?" Goten asked, crouching down a bit more and throwing his hands back. "You aren`t going to do anything. You two still have a chance of beating him if you can do another Fusion dance, Zangya and I`ll try to hold him off as long as we can," Piccolo explained bluntly, moving one leg plainly into Goten`s path while Zangya stepped entirely in front of Trunks.   
  
"Which probably means we`ll die with a few nice snappy comments and a lot of style but won`t accomplish very much," she stated cynically. "Welcome to the world of anyone who isn`t a Saiyan these days," Piccolo muttered annoyedly. "I can already tell that I don`t like it," Zangya complained, slowly beginning to gather power. That certainly irked Piccolo a bit though, she was now sparingly more powerful than he was.   
  
_ "Grand, she-bitch gets the last laugh in the end,"_ he thought in disdain while powering up himself, still trying to block Goten`s path to Buu, or Buu`s path to Goten depending on one`s point of view.   
  
Neither Zangya or Piccolo ever attacked though. In fact, none of them were even paying attention to Buu for very much longer as another ki signature entered their senses, measuring so far off the scales that only Goten and Trunks were willing to actually believe that they weren`t having a mass hallucination. "Does anyone else feel that?" Goten finally asked after several seconds.   
  
"Could be a new enemy," Piccolo growled, starting to gather more and more power up. "Talk about being caught between a rock and hard place," Zangya replied sarcastically, easing up a bit and staring out through the gaps in buildings at the incoming signature.   
  
"Is it just me or is that ki familiar?" Trunks asked before finally, a split second later, Piccolo answered all their questions with a roaring smile. "_**IT`S GOKU!**_" He shouted with a rare enthusiasm, the kind that he had only ever displayed when the moment all but demanded it. Goten corrected him a split second later though. "No, it`s Gohan!" He shouted with the same enthusiasm as Piccolo.   
  
Not that any of them managed to get their words out before he had already touched down, landing with a skid down a row of concrete with the sounds of shattering glass heralding his arrival a few seconds late, followed even later still by an Earth rattling sonic boom as the oldest son of Goku stopped his landing on a dime, spacing himself halfway between Buu and the surviving defenders of the Earth.   
  
"Hi guys, long time no see," he greeted with a smirk, turning sideways to face the others. "... Kid, what in the hell happened to your hair," Zangya asked sarcastically, overshadowing the mood of the teen`s dramatic return with her usual brand of off-beat humor, though the original demi-saiyan didn`t seem to mind too much. "Figures you`d be the one to notice that," he commented with an equally sarcastic tone and a smirk.   
  
"It isn`t just the hair and the eyes, is it?" Piccolo asked, seeing to the point in a matter of seconds. "Your entire ki`s been rearranged Gohan, what`s happened to you?" He demanded. For a few seconds, Piccolo almost didn`t believe that the man standing in front of him could be the same teen that had grown out of the boy he had spent a full year watching over and bludgeoning the snot out of to try and strengthen.   
  
Until he saw that damnably infectious little grin that the entire family seemed to have.   
  
"I`ll explain after I finish with the tentacle porn reject," Gohan replied with that same grin, turning sideways to face Majin Buu with a far different, far angrier expression, coldly neutral despite the rage bubbling beneath the surface. "So... You`ve lost some weight and grown a few inches."   
  
"I also slaughtered the entire population of this pathetic little dump of a planet," Buu replied with a growl, standing straight and tossing his head in either direction. "You`re the one I defeated earlier, aren`t you?" He asked. "Depends on how you classify defeat, if you mean 'pissed me off' then yes, that would be me," Gohan answered sharply. "Good, I thought it was you," Buu replied before stepping forward and standing before the teen with that all-but-insane grin. "Tell me boy, did you really think any sort of power-up you could ever recieve would allow you to surpass me?" Buu asked.   
  
"I don`t think, I know," Gohan answered. "I see... So, you went through all of that powering up, just to come and fight me, did you?" Buu asked. "Fight you? I don`t care about fighting you Buu, I`m here to kill you," Gohan answered calmly, turning to fully face Buu and narrowing his eyes. "Then come, come kill me O savior of the world," Buu ordered, jumping back and lunging at Gohan from almost thirty feet in the air.   
  
His punch was soundly blocked with a small impact shockwave as Gohan moved his forearm up and blocked the attack like it was nothing, gingerly shoving Buu`s arm back and sending the creature screaming down the street to smash through the side of an apartment building and have it all crash down onto him. Gohan on the other hand, simply cracked his knuckles and glanced back over his shoulder at the small crowd of shocked onlookers.   
  
"I`ll take it from here guys, you just hang back for now and let me deal with him," Gohan ordered with a nod before launching off of the ground, leaving the other four to scrape their jaws off of the concrete.   
  
_ I cannot take this anymore  
I`m saying everything I`ve said before   
  
_ "You can get up now, I know you`re not hurt," Gohan stated, touching down atop one of the dozen or so individual pillars of rubble that had sprouted around where he had sent Buu into. "How right you are," Buu stated as he regenerated from a puddle of slop beneath all of the rubble to come to a plain stand in at the base of the pile that Gohan was standing on, hand already drawn back before raining down, slamming into the pile and detonating it almost instantly.   
  
His attack would`ve worked too, if not for the fact that Gohan had circled around and was presently standing behind him, smirking slightly. Buu grinned ferally and laughed to himself before shocking upright at the small tug made on his tail, which was actually powerful enough that he found his head bent over backwards in a grotesque manner, causing the ancient godkiller to flench slightly.   
  
"Hi," Gohan greeted. "Nice night out," he stated before casually slinging Buu skyward, though the demon hadn`t gotten more than a few dozen stories up when he was met with a solid backhand across the forehead, sending him crashing through another building with a rorar, erupting out of the side and continuing on through eight or nine more before finally slamming into the grounds on the city`s outskirts with a cratering impact, severe enough that it sent off a tilted cloud of dust almost a mile high and half as long.   
  
Gohan was already waiting for him by the time he had landed.   
  
"Don`t you think so?" The teen asked, politely helping Buu out of the body imprint and right into a knee into the gut before throwing him right back through the air in the direction he`d come from, zooming through the holes the demon left behind in the abandoned buildings he crashed through and appearing ahead of him once again, smacking Buu back down into the ground with unbelievable force, shattering concrete all around and finally allowing the pink monstrosity to get back up, regenerating the trench in the back of his head and cracking his neck to either side angrily.   
  
"That. Wasn`t. Nice," Buu growled, ignoring the stares of the four onlookers to the battle, who he had coincidentally landed not too far from.   
  
Gohan only shifted himself into an upright stance in the skies between high rise buildings, raising his arms up slightly and then throwing them back down without so much as a single sound from himself, just as an aura of fire tinted a flaming golden shot up around him, while several dozen buildings in every direction erupted in flames. "What now? Trying to scare me with a fancy light show?!" Buu demanded loudly.   
  
"No, I`m just taking things up a notch!" Gohan yelled, promptly dropping down from the heights of the sky only to pause mere inches above the ground, kicking up a large cloud of dust on the sheer force of his now-invisible aura, which had all but dropped out of sight with him, never quite surviving the fall for one reason or another. Another wave of dust and the teen was already launching himself at Buu by the time everyone had set their eyes on where he had been mere fractions of a second earlier, slamming elbow first into Buu`s stomach with such force that it caused Buu`s body to crumple like tin foil against a sledge hammer rather than causing Buu to fly back.   
  
_ All these words, they make no sense  
I find bliss in ignorance  
  
_ Of course Buu was too disoriented by the first strike to really feel the punch into his chin, which knocked his head for a literal spin on his neck beck another elbow cut up and into his chin, sending the demon`s head into a backflip, still attached to his neck the entire time. There were a few dozenths of a second in pause while Gohan reached back, only to swipe up with his left leg and kick Buu in the head, setting him right on his corkscrewed neck, following it with a second kick that spun his head back into proper positioning, ending everything off with a thunderous roar of ki which followed an explosion across Buu`s chest, throwing the pink demon back hundreds of feet and into a skid.   
  
For several seconds, Zangya, Piccolo, Goten and Trunks all started at the scene before them, dumbfounded completely while Gohan touched down on his feet, lowering his now-smoking hands back down to his sides and regarding the mess he had made out of Buu, who was slow to pull himself up and out of the messy pile of distorted, deformed limbs and miscellaneous bodyparts, hobbling along briefly on one bent foot before seeming to spring back to normal, virtually as good as new.   
  
"Elastic little bastard, aren`t you?" Gohan asked, even though Buu was around two feet taller than he himself was. "... Now I`m angry," Buu growled like a scorned child, thrusting his left hand up into the air and shouting as the same technique he had used to annihilate humanity was again put to use to try and take out Gohan, spraying thousands upon thousands of ki blasts up into the skies above the city only to have them all come spiralling right back down, tearing apart buildings and leveling virtually everything in sight as Goten, Trunks, Zangya and Piccolo all defended themselves, smacking away the blasts that randomly lanced out at them.   
  
Gohan just stood there and let everything that was going to hit him do so.   
  
_ Less I hear, the less you`ll say  
But you`ll find that out anyway  
Just like before...  
  
_ "If that`s all you can do, give up while you`re ahead," Gohan ordered, even as blast after blast slammed into him at a frenzied rate while the city collapsed to ruins all around he and the others, explosions the size of skyscrapers towering up into the only to yield to gravity`s whims and come falling back down like toppling pillars of Hell itself.   
  
Not that Gohan entirely noticed a single one of them. He had been to Hell after all, there wasn`t much for him to be knowingly afraid of anymore.   
  
After almost three minutes, Buu finally ended the attack, laughing gutturally within the miles-wide, miles-taller cloud of smoke that surrounded what had once been a bustling - and then later ruinous and ghost filled - city. Buu`s cackling rang out throughout the smoke, since he didn`t need to breathe, he was unscathed by the strangling effects of having no oxygen.   
  
Of course, his laughter ended after several seconds when a single light began to shine in the blackness of the smoke, which was promptly blown away in a roar of rushing ki, the likes of which even Buu felt a bit of envy at the sight of. Goten, Trunks, Zangya and Piccolo all stood a few yards behind Gohan, who was still unharmed even after the demon`s unrelenting assault, bearing a neutral expression of resolve in the face of a creature that had personally slaughtered gods by the hundreds in it`s past.   
  
"I almost pity you," Gohan stated dryly before diving forward again.   
  
_ Everything you say to me  
Takes me one step closer to the edge  
And I`m about to break  
I need a little room to breathe  
`Cause I`m one step closer to the edge  
And I`m about to break  
  
_ The next five seconds saw Majin Buu hit with more attacks than even he could even feel individual pains from, punches hard enough to leave fist marks in his skin, kicks fast enough to whip trails that were inches deep flying through the air to make impact, only to have each mark, crater or trench in his body annihilated by the attacks to come after it. Impact shockwaves rang out with each blow like a machine gun, fast enough that no individual sound could ever hope to be registered, blowing away more and more of the smoke cloud with each attack before finally, Gohan halted his attacks, leaving a deformed, warped, gurgling blob of bubblegum with it`s mouth in a place that it`s creator didn`t intend and it`s eyes located somewhere on the inside of the pile.   
  
"Almost," Gohan stated, finalizing the assault with one last punch, one so fierce that it literally warped Buu back to his normal state with far too many bruises to count, not to mention an arm punching straight through his mid-section.   
  
A few seconds passed and Gohan drew his arm back, gingerly taking a step away from Buu as the creature stumbled away and righted itself, head tilting from side to side dazedly. "I`ll make you pay," Buu growled ferally. "Take your best shot," Gohan ordered.   
  
_ I find the answers aren`t so clear  
Wish I could find a way to disappear  
  
_ There was a blindingly bright blast of flame, arcing up miles into the sky as a pinkish tornado, with Buu at it`s center. "Oh I will," he stated quickly, head tilting from side to side faster and faster as the demon began to laugh gutturally, speaking as if he`d just inhaled enough helium to kill an elephant. "I`ll make you all pay..."   
  
"If this is all the power you can call up to try and hurt me, don`t even bother," Gohan ordered.   
  
_ All these thoughts they make no sense  
I find bliss in ignorance  
  
_ "I`ll make you pay for every single thing you`ve done to me..."   
  
Almost too late, Gohan realized just what Buu was doing.   
  
_ "Shit,"_ he thought to himself as Buu`s power started to kick into overdrive, suddenly rippling outward in an explosion that was likely going to be even larger than the one he had carried out to try and kill Gotenks earlier. The night sky turned hot pink as the blast began, but by then, Gohan had already covered the distance to Goten, Trunks, Zangya and Piccolo, grabbing the lot of them in any way he could, just as the explosion started to expand at speeds too quick for any of the other four to even hope to avoid, with far too much power for any of them to even think of surviving.   
  
_ Nothing seems to go away  
Over and over again  
  
_ "**_ALL OF YOU WILL PAY!!!_**"   
  
_ Everything you say to me  
Takes me one step closer to the edge  
And I`m about to break  
I need a little room to breathe  
`Cause I`m one step closer to the edge  
And I`m about to break  
  
_ The everything within a hundred miles of Majin Buu promptly vanished in an explosion so fierce that it almost knocked the planet out of orbit. Shockwaves visible from the other end of the solar system spread off, threatening to tear the Earth into little more than a cosmic frag grenade, but instead of doing that, as Buu most certainly could have, the explosion seemed to halt itself.   
  
Reality distorted around the blast and time seemed to slow down for a short while, and then it all calmed down. The explosion warped itself out of existence and all that was left was a blackened, charred out crater, stretching a hundred miles in all directions, even straight down.   
  
"Well, that was close," Gohan mumbled aloud, glancing down at the four figures he had just saved from a fiery, no doubt painful sort of end and counting them off by name in his head. "Thanks Gohan," Piccolo managed to get out, though he didn`t exactly allow the fact to go over his head that the teen had him tucked under one arm like a sack of clothing in the same way he had Zangya in his opposite with Goten and Trunks held by the scruffs of their necks in either hand. "Don`t mention it," his former student, and former equal, replied casually.   
  
"Well... At least you didn`t rip my hair out, like _someone_ I could mention," Zangya stated with a glare at Trunks and Goten. Though her hair hadn`t actually been ripped out, it sure felt like it. A few seconds passed and Gohan let go of the four of them, lowering down and settling himself to stand atop a battered cliff, followed a few seconds later by the other four.   
  
"Do you think that killed him?" Piccolo asked as the night finally returned to normal, dull starlight being the only illumination for the time being. "Not a chance in Hell," Gohan replied bluntly and with an oddly out-of-place lack of manners about him. "If he wanted me dead badly enough to take himself out, none of the solar system would be intact right now. Probably not much of this part of the galaxy either for that matter," Gohan mused sourly.   
  
"How can you be sure he isn`t dead though? You saw how that blast warped the area around it... Almost like when he and Gotenks punched through time and space to get out of the Room," Zangya pointed out annoyedly, not exactly able to see much in the dim lighting of the night. "Because if he was, I wouldn`t be feeling his ki dropping through that tunnel you guys punched through the planet," Gohan replied with a light shrug. "You need to learn to pay attention to your ki senses again," he pointed out jokingly before launching off of the cliffside and heading towards the crater.   
  
"... This out of a kid I spent a week beating the snot out of in a pitch black cave to try and help him develop ki sensing skills in the first place," Piccolo grumbled annoyedly. "Least your not the only one having a case of suddenly obsolete," Zangya commented with the same tone, ignorant of the fact that Goten and Trunks were already blasting off after Gohan.   
  
_ Shut up when I`m talkin` to you!  
Shut up! Shut up!  
  
_ Echoes thrashed out of the very bottom of the crater as two figures battled their way out of the passage that Goten and Trunks had punched through the Earth with their own bodies as Gotenks, throwing off hundreds of shockwaves when the two finally exited, with Buu clearly on the defensive, throwing off punches by the truckload, each and every one of which found themselves individually blocked and parried by Gohan, who had yet to even break a sweat throughout their battle.   
  
"**_DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!_**" Buu continuously shouted with each strike, so fast that the individual words were almost inaudible from each other, even to Gohan. "You really need to expand your vocabulary," the demi-saiyan teen pointed out, almost lazily as he stopped blocking and allowed Buu`s last kick to trail through his now-dropped defenses, simply stepping out of the way and inching forward, elbow stabbing straight up and into Buu`s chin with a loud implosion of his jaw, only to extend his arm out entirely and further implode the rest of the ancient demon`s face, just as Goten and Trunks arrived on the scene.   
  
_ Shut up when I`m talkin` to you!  
Shut up! Shut up!  
  
_ "... Why... Can`t I beat you?" Buu demanded in a near-gurgle after Gohan had withdrawn his forearm.   
  
"If you haven`t figured it out yourself, there`s no point in telling you," Gohan stated lazily, drawing one hand back and then extending it back outward, blasting Buu in the chest badly enough that it sent the demon flying back.   
  
_ I`m about to break!   
  
_ "_Ha_!" Gohan shouted, surging forth a burst of power into the beam he had just put through Buu`s chest, catching the demon across his entire upper body with the sudden shock of ki, causing Buu to again liquify before the beam suddenly arced upward into a half-loop and drove the liquid right into the lava that was again bubbling up out of the passage that Gotenks and Buu had formed through the Earth.   
  
_ "Damn,"_ Gohan thought, feeling Buu`s ki suddenly start moving down through the lava towards the core of the planet, even in all of the unbelievable heat that he was trying to pass through. The teen took it in stride though, lowering his hand and glancing back at Goten and Trunks. "Where are Piccolo and Zangya?!" He yelled over to the two, who were standing a good distance away.   
  
"I think they`re still on that cliff back there!" Trunks shouted back. "Let`s go get them! We have a bit o` work to do!" Gohan shouted. "What do you mean?!" Goten asked, lowering his voice when Gohan floated over to the two. "We`re going to go find Dende, he`s still alive," Gohan answered, lifting off again. "He is?" Trunks asked. "Yeah... You can sense ki, remember? Did everyone forget that when I was away or something?" Gohan asked dryly.   
  
"... Oh," Trunks mumbled as he and Goten flew off after Gohan.   
  
_ Everything you say to me  
Takes me one step closer to the edge  
And I`m about to break  
I need a little room to breath  
`Cause I`m one step closer to the edge  
And I`m about to break   
  
_ And hundreds of miles below, buried down through billions upon trillions of tons of dirt, rock and magma, beneath even the ever-shifting continental plates, Buu waited, gradually pulling himself back together atop the molten iron core of the Earth, gradually biding his time. He would wait, of course. It was always a wait, from the moment he had first felt that power signature growing in the distance, across even the barriers between the Mortal Plane and the Realms above it. It had been a wait then, fighting Gotenks and trying to grasp the strength of that distant power as it grew larger by each passing minute.   
  
It was a wait then and it was a wait now.   
  
But that was okay. Buu had a plan, he always had a plan but none had ever been particularly this good because none of the previous incarnations of Buu had ever been distinctly individual enough to plan farther ahead than what they`d have for lunch or what attack they would use to finish someone off all of two minutes before actually using it. This Buu though, this Buu had a plan.   
  
And soon enough, he was going to use it.   
  
_ "Only a matter of time,"_ Buu thought certainly.   
  
_ "Only a matter of time..."   
  


End Part Twenty-Eight

_  
  


* * *

  
  
**Author`s Note:** Feel the ownage! And feel the **_CLIFFHANGER!_** :D  
  
**perrin:** I don`t mind a negative review but a flame won`t get anyone anywhere, yanno?  
  
**Will:** Yeah, that was especially one of my favorite scenes to write in the entire series... Just having Gotenks be crazy enough to actually tear a moon out of another dimension to try and hit something the size of Majin Buu with it was a riot to me, but it actually fit! Glad you liked it.  
  
**cobra:** Hope you enjoyed Round One *Evil cackle.*  
  
**diamondgirl, Professor Authordude and CysticLOL17:** Ah come on guys! Where`d ya go? o_O  
  
That`s all for now folks, enjoy, leave a review and see ya next time! Sh33p out. 


	30. In The End

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations  
**_ In The End   
  
  
  
_

"Are you sure you can handle him when he comes back? This new power of your`s doesn`t have a time limit, does it?" Piccolo asked with concern. A little too much reliance on Super Gotenks had him more than a _bit_ worried about fighters with time limits nowadays. Gohan only shrugged. "Given the way I smacked him around without even bothering to try, I`d say yes. No time limit though," Gohan dismissed with a lazy shrug. "In other words that power-up you were given was the theoretical Zero Point Tap of living ki," Piccolo replied uncertainly, not quite making a question out of it. Only Gohan actually knew what in the heck he was talking about though. "Yeah, now can we _please_ go get Dende? He survived everything that happened but I`m not sure how much longer he`ll live without someone helping him," Gohan explained.   
  
"Blame me," Piccolo shrugged. "How so?" Gohan asked. "Earth needed it`s god and it needed the Dragonballs. Dende snapped when Buu killed Videl and the population of Earth, I had to keep him alive so I knocked him out, stabbed him with his staff and threw him off the Look Out."   
  
Gohan stared at his former mentor with one of the most cynical looks in the planet`s history. "I know you have a reputation to maintain for being harder than Hell on your students but isn`t that just a _bit_ much?" Gohan asked sarcastically. "I could`ve done worse. I just had to keep him low enough that Buu would fail to notice him, and keeping his staff in his body meant he wouldn`t be able to regenerate from the fall without someone helping him but reflexes would take care of making sure he survived," Piccolo explained dryly.   
  
"Both of you shut up and let`s go already, if the mini-stringbean gives out while we`re standing here like retards, Earth is screwed," Zangya stated, ignoring the fact that Goten and Trunks were standing there. "... I hate it when she has a point," Piccolo grumbled as he and Gohan began to lift off, followed a few seconds later by the other three.   
  
The flight towards Korin Tower, or what was left of the ancient, oversized divine computer system, was relatively quiet bar the endless questions and explanations about what Gohan had been doing, where he`d been, what it was like when Gotenks fought Buu - in short, everything. A lot more had happened in the span of two days - if that - than any of the five survivors ever thought possible, but they were all doing well enough now that there seemed to be a speck of hope for the population of the Earth if they could gather the Dragonballs.   
  
And then they flew over a certain man and his dog who seemed uniquely out of place in the setting sun of the desert outside of the forest of Korin`s people, staggering haggardly through the late afternoon heat. Trunks didn`t seem terribly moved, Zangya didn`t notice but Piccolo, Goten and Gohan all picked out the figure just by being near him.   
  
"... How in the heck did Hercule survive?" Gohan asked bemusedly. It wasn`t a bad surprise of course, Hercule was like an annoying tumor that seemed to grow on you after a while, except this one could be relatively funny to hang out with at rare times, such as the occasional lunar eclipse. Except Earth hadn`t _had_ a lunar eclispe in roughly thirteen years. Mainly since the moon had been blown up again twelve years ago, but still.   
  
"Hercule succeeded where all of us failed. I`ve been keeping tabs on him since he left the Look Out to try and help the people through the feelings of what was happening. I didn`t expect him to survive but apparently he has the makings of greatness in a way none of us could ever hope for," Piccolo explained. "Hercule would have completely stopped Buu from killing without ever having thrown a single punch, simply because he befriended him without having to do it through a fight the way Goku did."   
  
"In other words he tried to kill Buu six ways to Sunday but somehow kept screwing up in a way that made it utterly impossible for Buu and Hercule to hate each other," Zangya cut in."... That`s... Nice..." Gohan thought aloud, pausing and shooting down towards the ground, followed by Goten a split second later.   
  
"Anyone wanna tell me why those two just dropped out like that to pick up Videl`s dad?" Trunks asked annoyedly. "It`s called having a sense of compassion Trunks, learn it," Piccolo replied, waiting for a few seconds as Gohan and Goten picked up a flailing Hercule and Bee, darting right back up to join the others without missing a step.   
  
"**_I DON`T WANNA DIE! PUT ME BACK DOWN, PLEASE! I KNOW I TOLD A FEW LI`L WHITE LIES BUT IT`S NOT MAH TIME!!!_**" Hercule screamed for several seconds, finally opening his eyes and silencing himself at the fact that he was hanging from around a mile off of the ground. "... Mommy..."   
  
"Cool it, will ya?" Gohan asked, resisting the urge to lightly smack Hercule across the back of the head to try and shut him up. The former Tenkaichi Champion glanced up and back a second later and stared at the teen who was presently holding him aloft with on hand holding Hercule`s left wrist. "... Gohan? I thought you were dead?" Hercule asked surprisedly. "Went to Hell, hung out in Heaven but no, I didn`t die," Gohan replied casually. "... Where did everybody go?" Hercule finally asked. "They`re all dead," Piccolo answered.   
  
"Majin Buu killed every single one of them," he affirmed. "Even the people on the Look Out?" Hercule asked. "Yes," Piccolo answered.   
  
"Even Videl?"   
  
"Don`t worry, she`s doing alright. I met her while I was up in Heaven, actually," Gohan exclaimed. "... I don`t know whether to scream at you or just start cryin`," Hercule muttered. "Don`t worry too much, we can bring back everyone Buu killed soon enough," Piccolo interjected. "In four months," Zangya reminded with obvious cynicism.   
  
_ It starts with  
One thing, I don't know why  
It doesn't even matter how hard you try  
Keep that in mind, I designed this rhyme  
  
"This. Sucks."   
  
_ Not the kind of words you`d expect to hear from a Kami. Most who held the rank of Kami tended to be quite distant from the people, high society types in a sense, bar those few who were genuine heroes who commited enough acts of righteousness to be qualified for the job. Most of them tended to be the kinds of people who looked over at other worlds in the universe, other worlds that weren`t mere backwoods ponds with massive inferiority complexes.   
  
Dende on the other hand was a Kami who tended to walk around amongst the people. Sort of. The previous Kami, the good Piccolo, tended to get around the world using his staff to hide himself or possess people on a rare whim. He hadn`t ever been very fluent in slang though, even if he hadn`t been a high society Kami like the three or four before his own mentor, he was still a relatively classy kinda guy for an old geezer. Dende took the less subtle approach to things.   
  
That was because Dende didn`t hide himself from the people. Not with magics anyway, he preferred the lazy way to do things: By tossing on whatever sort of clothing was fashionable for guys his relative Earth age to wear and then blending in. Despite being a green skinned alien with antennae and pointy ears - not to mention the patches on his arms and things like that - Dende was pretty good at blending in with a crowd of humans.   
  
That was how he knew so much human slang. Such as...   
  
_ "... This fucking blows."   
  
_ ... And many other nice, mannerly sayings. He had spent the past hour or so lying on his back of course, he`d survived the fall easily but it hadn`t exactly been pleasant to sit there with a staff jammed into your body, preventing natural regeneration from occurring anywhere at all. Sure, Dende could`ve willed himself to heal by force if he had to, but doing so with the staff stabbed into his body like it was would cause his body to repair around it, leaving him with either a semi-permanent hole in his chest or a very disturbing looking disfigurement for the rest of his life - or until he could get someone to tear the staff out.   
  
Neither were very pleasant ideas, but Dende wasn`t exactly in a position to remove the ancient tool. It was stuck there, it nailed him to the ground and it`s position made it impossibly difficult to try and reach up and pry out. So Dende was stuck.   
  
The Kami of Earth had fallen and couldn`t get up because fate had apparently mistaken him for a vampire. _They_ were the ones stakes were _supposed_ to be used on to nail down, but noooo...   
  
"**_WILL SOMEONE GET THIS FUCKING THING OUT OF MY CHEST ALREADY?!_**" Dende screamed. Most people would likely be sobbing by now. Dende had run out of tears when he had come to after the fall and realized everyone on the Look Out was dead. Now he was just too angry and in pain to feel sorrow. His language probably would have been a bit stronger but given the way he was spewing out cuss words in no less than every language on Earth, his original Namekian tongue and a little bit of Saiyago he`d picked up off of Gohan`s old habit of cussing in that language after hanging around Vegeta for too long, as well as a little bit of the dozen or so other languages he happened to know, it wasn`t exactly a surprise that he was running out of profane things to say.   
  
_ To explain in due time  
All I know  
  
_ "All ya had to do was ask," Zangya quipped while nonchalantly yanking the staff out of Dende`s chest and tossing it aside. The Namekian teen gasped and howled several times as a newer, hotter series of pains flashed through his chest before the hole sealed itself shut and the rest of his body began to automatically repair from the fall. A few seconds passed by and Dende was on his feet again, wobbling slightly and looking as though someone had just put him through an emotional meat grinder.   
  
And the target for his frustrations was standing in plain sight, a good ten feet away but well within reach.   
  
Piccolo finally winced visibly and glanced sideways as Gohan, Goten and Trunks all set down, with the first of the three putting Hercule down on his feet first and the second still holding Bee on one shoulder like the dog was some kind of parrot. The Son family had a weird way with animals, that was obvious enough as it was. Dende on the other hand, merely twitched and violently shoved past Zangya, storming by Gohan, Goten, Trunks, Hercule and Bee as if they weren`t even there before grabbing Piccolo by one of his ears and yanking him down to eye level.   
  
"**_DON`T YOU EVER FUCKING THINK OF DOING THAT AGAIN!!!_**" Dende screamed, loudly enough that blood squirted out of Piccolo`s opposite ear in a small guyser while Zangya, who`s own hearing wasn`t exactly shabby either, covered both of her ears in annoyance. "... Gee Dende, way to show gratitude," Zangya complained sarcastically as the young Namek then shoved Piccolo upright and allowed him to drop down to the ground in a jumbled heap. Few people on Earth could reduce a fellow like the permanent Fusion of Piccolo Daimou Junior, Piccolo Anglou and Nail to a pile of disoriented, probably deaf mush, but Dende was definately one of them.   
  
"Damn," Hercule mumbled, poking at Piccolo with his boot. The downed Namek stayed there for several seconds before languidly scraping himself back up, patting either side of his head and regenerating his ear drums with a grunt while Dende calmed himself back down, or tried to at least. He still had a nervous twitch even when he began to speak again, trying to sound cheerful.   
  
"So... Any**_ONE_** care t_**O**_ expl_**AIN**_ things to me?" Dende asked pleasantly.   
  
Nobody was phased in the least.   
  
_ Time is a valuable thing  
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings   
  
_ An hour went by in what seemed like seconds as the gathering of people who mostly hadn`t seen each other in a mere day or two found themselves catching up on events like old war veterans who hadn`t spoken in decades. Hercule was depressingly silent for the most part, he`d only spoken to explain how he and Buu had become friends, and what he and Bee had been doing the entire time while the current Buu raided the Look Out. For the most part he wasn`t exactly his usual talkative self since he had found out he`d outlived his own daughter.   
  
Goten and Trunks had spent the better part of the hour - along with Zangya correcting them from time to time - filling in the blanks about Bojack. It hadn`t come as that great a surprise to Gohan or Piccolo for some reason or another but Dende was visibly floored by it, enough to forget that he was angry. Piccolo spent his portion of the hour explaining about how he had allowed the others to stall Buu, and stalled the creature himself, while Gohan had spent his chunk finishing up the story of just what he`d been doing over the past day or so.   
  
And then there had been the silence whenever any of them brought up feeling the Earth`s population cease to exist, or the shocked quiet when Gohan explained how Vegeta was doing in Hell.   
  
_ Watch it count down to the end of the day  
The clock ticks life away  
  
"Almost time,"_ Buu thought, still sitting atop the Earth`s molten core despite the fact that gravity was more or less trying to rip him apart down there, while at the same time, pressure sought to pulp him out of exist even as it brought along enough heat that few things in the universe could hope to survive. For Buu, it was just another mild annoyance he would soon be rid of as he sat there, thinking, trying to plan and trying to be patient. Most would be correct in guessing that the current Buu, this... Super Buu, was something of an idiot, but he still had enough thought to plan ahead at least a little and if people underestimated that then all the better.   
  
It just made them overconfident about his intelligence and underconfident about his strength, both of which damned a good many of his opponents to a fairly painful demise.   
  
_ It's so unreal   
  
_ "**_WHO THE HELL ELSE WANTS SOME?!_**" Vegeta screamed with a maniacal smile, having literally been wearing Frieza like his left boot for the past few hours. The former tyrant was obviously not enjoying it of course, having even Vegeta`s admittedly smaller-than-average foot rammed into one`s rear end and left there wasn`t going to be a pleasant experience no matter who you were, especially not if it was the foot he favored using for kicking people. In the past hour alone, Frieza had been used as a tool to kick in the heads of more than fifty of his own people.   
  
He was presently cursing the fates for not allowing those in Hell an easy way to die. Again. Death while dead and in Hell was an escape of sorts since it allowed the soul to be fully recycled into it`s next incarnation rather than suffering an eternity, Hell was supposed to be escape-proof so a soul in Hell couldn`t die easily at all, even though dying again while already dead was hard enough as it was. As such, Frieza was stuck there.   
  
With a size 10" jammed into his hind end.   
  
Being used as a boot.   
  
And hating every second of it.   
  
"**_WHO ELSE WANTS TO FEEL UNCLE VEGGIE`S SPECIAL SHIT-KICKER?!_**"   
  
"... I... _Hate_... Saiyans..." Frieza growled under his horribly strained breath, trying to squirm free only to have his tail used to hold him in place while Vegeta drove his foot in a bit deeper. "You`re not going _**ANYWHERE**_ you little shit! Not until I can feel my boot grinding it`s way up your god damned throat and out your mouth!" Vegeta yelled, grabbing Frieza by the back of the head and bending the Aisu tyrant backwards in a painfully unnatural way while using his free arm to repeatedly punch the smaller warrior in the spine so many times that his pale white flesh was beginning to tinge an unnatural shade of pink.   
  
"And I`m going to enjoy _**EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF IT YOU LITTLE ALBINO SON OF A BITCH!**_" Vegeta screamed, drawing his hands up around Frieza`s neck and shoving his foot in deeper while trying to wrench the Aisu`s head backwards. It wasn`t that out of place in Hell of course, the Aisu and the Saiyans had been beating each other up for so many years and, given the extreme brutality of both races involved, seeing one member of one race trying to wear members of the other like clothing really wasn`t _that_ out of place. Even if the 'living clothes' were still screaming in pained defiance and rage.   
  
It _was_ Hell after all.   
  
But all good things have to come to an end eventually. Frieza howled in shock as Vegeta`s entire leg went in, shovelling a good many internal organs and excess body mass out of the former dictator`s mouth to spill out onto the ground beneath their feet, staining it a disgusting purple before Vegeta`s boot erupted out of his mouth, knocking out all of the Aisu`s teeth in the process.   
  
"Told you I`d get my boot through your mouth," Vegeta mocked, forcibly ripping his leg free and shaking it clean of Frieza`s blood before field kicking the downed warrior right up into Hell`s roof, hard enough to leave a visible body imprint for several seconds before a gurgling sack of flesh that had been a once-proud, sadistic Aisu warrior dropped back down to land with a thud on a pile of his own organs, unmoving but still as alive as a dead villain could get.   
  
Of course Frieza would be fully healed in a few hours, Hell wouldn`t let anyone stay incapacitated for long since it preferred to give them the 'dignity' of suffering on their feet, at least not the Hell of Evil Warriors. But Vegeta was intent on making sure they would be the longest hours of Frieza`s afterlife, drawing his foot back again and socking the Aisu off of the ground with it, right into a double hammering blow into the small of the back, hard enough that it sent Frieza right back into the damned ground which he had just been kicked off of.   
  
But all good things have to come to an end. Eventually.   
  
And eventually came too soon for Vegeta`s tastes as Frieza`s carcass was lit a-glow and sent skyrocketing towards the most frigid regions in all of Hell, past the Border between the Frost Realm and the rest of this particular Hell, and somewhere out in the mountain range around Or-Helkh`s distant neighbor, a fairly strange lake known as the Pit of Blackwater. The Pit of Blackwater was a lake in Hell, constantly rushing as a whirlpool filled with ice heavier than most people could comprehend and loaded down with such darkness that even fewer were willing to acknowledge existed. Things that went in usually didn`t come out since they wound up pulverized, frozen and then crushed(or so it was believed). Some thought the Pit of Blackwater was a gateway to another, more severe Hell, others thought it was just an exceptionally bad way to spend eternity.   
  
Vegeta didn`t care either way. Instead, he shifted around angrily and glared daggers at the small, elderly looking woman in a witch`s hat sitting on a crystall ball, lowering her hand coyly into her lap. "... You little bitch," Vegeta bit out angrily, firing back up into Super Saiyan once again. He had all but mastered both of the levels he could achieve in his brief time in Hell, it was only to be expected when one had to fight out of Or-Helkh and through everything else in their path in the process. Survival, hard battle and no alternatives tended to drive skill and power up quite a bit.   
  
But none of that seemed to matter to the little woman hovering in front of him. "Why in this Hell did you do that? I wasn`t finished!" Vegeta cursed. He had spent the past hours taking great joy in humiliating Frieza repeatedly in only his normal, base state, he hadn`t even gotten to the parts where he shifted through every stage and level of Super Saiyan he could access! She had cut his fun short and now, for lack of a better way to say it, Vegeta was literally a royally pissed off Saiyan monarch.   
  
And it still didn`t matter.   
  
"Because it`s time to leave, Vegeta. You`re needed on Earth and we can`t bring Goku back again for another year or so, you`re our only other option," Baba stated gravely. "... Am I the only one that insists on calling that bastard by his _real_ name?" Vegeta growled. "Names have more meaning than you know Vegeta. Just because Goku isn`t his birth name doesn`t mean it isn`t his true name, just like your birth name isn`t your true name either," Baba stated, eyes narrowing.   
  
Vegeta only snorted. It made sense a bit, if he wanted to enact a curse that is. That aside it was just stupid. Plain and simple.   
  
"Now let`s go," Baba ordered, turning away and beginning to leave with Vegeta not too far behind. It wasn`t because he was following orders, not in the slightest, but he had a very deep seeded score to settle with Majin Buu, and he was going to make sure to see it through to the bloodiest possible end.   
  
_ Didn't look out below  
Watch the time go right out the window  
Trying to hold on but didn't even know  
Wasted it all just to watch you go  
  
_ "He`s coming," Gohan stated. He was the first to notice the fact that the ground was slightly rumbling, and the first to react to it by grabbing Hercule and launching off of the ground, followed a few seconds later by everyone else, with Dende taking up the task of carrying Bee since Goten was obviously intent on taking part in the fighting. Several seconds passed and the rumbling stopped.   
  
Only Gohan seemed to be expecting it when the entire area they had just been standing on went from the edge of a dead forest to a shattered desert rockfield miles wide, with the ground rising up and snapping apart at a certain rate, shattering here, breaking there and generally just taking a semi-barren wasteland and turning it into an even more barren hellhole. Again, only Gohan seemed to be expecting it when Buu slid up onto the tallest, largest rock in liquid form, gradually, menacingly rising back up of his own pool and shaking his head from side to side, cracking his neck each time.   
  
Hercule yelped as he was tossed aside, being caught by Piccolo while the entire group set back down, with Gohan touching down at the forefront of the motley group of people who were intent on saving the world, Goten and Trunks landing behind and to either side of him, with Piccolo, Hercule, Zangya, Bee and Dende all landing behind the others, quite content with allowing the stronger and/or more experienced fighters do the job of defeating Buu for now.   
  
"You haven`t changed," Gohan observed. "And maybe you`re just an idiot," Buu replied with a morbidly cryptic smirk. "And maybe you`re just overconfident, or have you forgotten how I beat the snot out of you the last time we fought?" Gohan asked, serious as ever. "Oh, Buu hasn`t forgotten, Buu never forgets," the demon replied, putting on a nice little act for the time being. Yes, they underestimated his intelligence quite a bit.   
  
"Then are you ready to go for round two?" Gohan asked.   
  
"Yes."   
  
Gohan smirked and lowered down into a fighting stance, beginning to gather up energy from within before Buu spoke again.   
  
"But not with you," Buu stated with a grin that was quite literally lopsided. It was nearly sideways in fact. "Eh?" Gohan voiced suspiciously. "What happened to all of that fire and eagerness you two were showing earlier? What happened to Gotenks? Is he already 'done with me yet?'" Buu asked, going right over Gohan`s head with his questions and striking out at the two boys behind him with them. "_Hey_! Don`t even think it, Buu, you`re fighting me, nobody else!" Gohan yelled furiously.   
  
Trunks on the other hand snorted defiantly. "Should we?" Goten asked. "Yes," Trunks replied for all the wrong reasons. Goten was alright with being on the sidelines, he wasn`t the same boy he would have been had Jack never existed in the first place so he wasn`t eager to follow his friend`s examples and yield to every little thing, but for once he was uncertain. Trunks was Vegeta`s son and he had an inkling of his father`s pride, to be accused of cowardice was akin to lighting a match on a charcoal grill while he was sitting on it.   
  
In short, Buu was playing headgames and he was winning.   
  
Trunks tossed his arms out, Goten followed suit but both stopped short of ever even starting the dance when Gohan spoke up once more. "_Don`t even think about it_! He`s just trying to use you two for something!" The teen shouted. Goten and Trunks paused for a moment before the older boy snorted and nodded at Goten.   
  
"_Fu_..."   
  
"**_I`LL TAKE BOTH OF YOU DOWN MYSELF IF I HAVE TO!_**" Gohan yelled at the two, trying to get them to stop without actually attacking them to do it. Buu just grinned.   
  
"... **_Sion_**..."   
  
"**_THIS IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROVING YOU AREN`T COWARDS! HE KNOWS THAT AND HE`S TRYING TO USE IT AGAINST YOU!_**" Gohan yelled again, turning completely to face the two boys with a fairly stern expression. Neither seemed to hesitate one bit at his words though, shimmying towards each other for the final part of the dance.   
  
"... Damn it," Gohan growled, lunging forward and stopping exactly midway between the two, arms outstretched. By the time Goten and Trunks had begun to make the movements to finish the dance, they were both being held a nice few feet apart from each other by their ankles. Upside-down. In mid-air. By a very angry looking Gohan.   
  
"What in the Hell are you two thinking?!" Gohan demanded, recieving only another snort from Trunks and a look of annoyedness from Goten. "This isn`t the time for you two to be playing games, this is more important than that. You`ll probably take out the next villain that comes our way - and there _will_ be more knowing our luck - but only if we actually survive this!" Gohan chastised angrily, setting both back down onto the ground with his hands on his hips. "So don`t give him what he wants, got that?" He asked sternly.   
  
Again, Trunks only snorted. Goten just gave a nod.   
  
"Aww, isn`t that cute? The little kiddies are being protected by big brother!" Buu shouted loudly. "Just proves what a cowardly pair you really are!" He added, bursting into laughter immediately afterward, even as something about his ki faintly changed. It got a little weaker, a little spread out for some reason or another.   
  
"Don`t. Listen. To him. Understand?" Gohan asked through grit teeth, turning his head back to glare knives at Buu. "I have a better idea," Trunks stated, suddenly fanning his fingers out over his face as Goten instinctively buried his face in the crook of his elbow, hiding his eyes while Gohan turned around.   
  
"**_TAIYOKEN!!!_**"   
  
"**_SHIT!_**" Gohan yelled the instant he was met by the temporary blindness the attack caused, reflexively shooting out a hand to try and grab one of the boys but by then it was already too late and their ki signatures had vanished almost completely, reappearing somewhere behind him between himself and Majin Buu. "**_DON`T DO IT!!!_**" Gohan screamed.   
  
It was already -   
  
"_Fu**sion HA!!!**_"   
  
- too late. Another blinding flash of light and by the time Gohan managed to clear his eyes, Gotenks was standing between himself and Buu, already in the third level of Super Saiyan and already preparing to launch himself at Majin Buu.   
  
_ I kept everything inside and even though   
I tried it, all fell apart  
What it meant to me, will eventually  
Be a memory of a time when  
  
_ "Good, I was beginning to think you were a coward," Buu grinned, an expression mirrored by Gotenks. "Methinks not, Pinko. A bit ugly at the moment, but not a coward."   
  
"Indeed, instead you`re just a fucking moron," Buu growled joyously, even as a pink blob shot up from behind Gotenks at a furious rate. It was around that time that Gohan fully figured things out, thinking out a very long, very detailed line of profanity before lunging over at Hercule and grabbing him by the shoulder. "Sorry if this doesn`t work!" Gohan shouted, flinging the now-screaming, fearful people`s champion over at Gotenks, just as Buu`s attack began to fall down towards the demi-saiyan Fusion.   
  
The plan worked perfectly. Buu`s blob stopped instantly and Gotenks growled annoyedly as Hercule flew by the attempted absorbtion and smacked into the back of his head, knocking both over with the big man acting as something of a shield. Buu grunted in frustration, he wasn`t expecting that but it was still quite alright. The sounds of Piccolo and Zangya both yelling out in surprise as phase two of Buu`s plan began, overtaking both to the extent that they weren`t going to be able to blast away the pink blobs currently overwhelming them anytime soon.   
  
_ "Shit,"_ Gohan thought again, turning back to Hercule and Gotenks while darting towards them, blasting the first blob out of existence in the process. "Don`t let go of `im Hercule, Buu won`t absorb you!" Gohan shouted in his rush, promptly launching himself off of the rock that Gotenks and Hercule were laying on and taking the offensive to Buu with several lightning jabs.   
  
It wasn`t the most effective form of attack but it was all the teen could think of on such short notice. Even as he rained in punches, trying to distract Buu from the task of absorbing Piccolo and Zangya, Gohan only heard gurgling, often distorted laughter from the ancient godkiller, even while he pounded Buu with as much ferocity as he could manage without tearing the entire area apart, knocking chunks of the demon off in the process.   
  
_ I tried so hard, and got so far  
But in the end, it doesn't even matter  
I had to fall, to lose it all  
But in the end, it doesn't even matter   
  
_ "Get off of me!" Gotenks shouted, flailing as Hercule bearhugged him relentlessly. "No! Gohan said to ke-" "Screw Gohan, _**GET OFF!**_ I don`t want to have to hurt you but I will if you don`t let go!" Gotenks shouted annoyedly, flailing around some more while Hercule forcibly lifted him off of the ground and started running. It wasn`t that Gotenks couldn`t easily just pry himself loose or anything, he just didn`t want to kill Hercule by accident and that wasn`t very easy to do at present.   
  
And then Hercule yelped and fell back with a busted forehead, still concious but obviously hurting as a pink blob like the one that had earlier entrapped Vegeta came into play a second time, constricting tightly around Gotenks far too quickly for even the Fusion to fight his way out of.   
  
"**_SHIT! HELP!!!_**"   
  
"Don`t do this Buu!" Hercule yelled, forcing himself back up off of the ground with a slight loss of balance from the impact to his forehead. It was the kind of blow that would kill a normal person just by grazing the skull, but to his credit and as an insult, Hercule`s head was too thick and his endurance to pain and injury too high to be taken out that easily. Not to say that it hadn`t knocked him for a loop of course.   
  
"**_I`M TOO YOUNG TO DIE DAMN IT! I HAVEN`T EVEN HIT PUBERTY OR BEEN PROPERLY SMACKED FOR BEING A DUMB, SEXIST PIG YET!!!_**" Gotenks screamed as the 'rope' of Buu-stuff started to melt around him, gradually constricting and consuming him even as Hercule launched himself forward in a kick, doing nothing in the process. A dozen punches at the blob and his knuckles were bleeding, a dozen more kicks and his knee was bruised beneath the fabric of his pants, an attempt at ramming the blob with his shoulder earned him only a steep fall off the rock as Buu started recalling the three absorbtions, even while those he sought to take into himself fought tooth and nail to try and free themselves.   
  
_ One thing, I don't know why  
  
_ "_**YOU LOSE!!!**_" Buu howled in laughter, shocking Gohan back with a kiai in the process, managing the feat only because Gohan was so focused on offense that he had let his gaurd down. A split second passed and three distinct plopping sounds could be registered to the teen`s ears.   
  
_ It doesn't even matter how hard you try   
  
_ "_No_," Gohan seethed, throwing his hands up over his head. "_I won`t let you take them_!" He screamed over the roaring onslaught of ki as Gotenks, Zangya and Piccolo were steadily, forcefully absorbed, with Buu allowing their faces to cross over his flesh for the added psychological effect he knew it would have.   
  
_ Keep that in mind, I designed this rhyme   
  
_ "_Masenko-**Ha!**_" Gohan yelled, hesitating for all of a moment at the sight before him. It wasn`t his full power being channeled into the beam either, just enough to try and knock Buu into such a state that he`d be out for the count. Hopefully.   
  
_ To remind myself how   
  
_ It didn`t work.   
  
_ I tried so hard   
  
_ It didn`t work at all.   
  
_ In spite of the way you were mocking me  
Acting like I was part of your property  
Remembering all the times you fought with me  
I'm surprised it got so far   
  
_ "**_AND SO IT ENDS!_**" Buu shouted joyously, even as he began to physically change on the outside to mirror the changes within, both physical and mental. In a matter of seconds, the advantage Gohan had so tightly grasped was annihilated, replaced in the extreme by something else all together. Buu`s body gained a few more inches in height, his tail lengthened out to the backs of his knees and a vest, similar in relative size to Gotenks` own, scaled up to fit Buu. The face seemed something of a missmatch, resembling Gotenks` with Piccolo`s teeth and Zangya`s nose and eyes, only her eyes seemed to have been re-colored by the absorbtion, now favoring the black-and-red look of Majin Buu`s own.   
  
_ Things aren't the way they were before  
You wouldn't even recognize me anymore  
  
"Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, **shit, SHIT!**_" Gohan thought, still wiping the blindness out of his eyes even as Buu emerged from the smoke cloud looking the way he did, grinning from ear to stumpy ear with nothing but malicious intent dotting his expression as he gingerly floated back down to the rock across from his one-time-superior. "Checkmate," Buu stated, tail twitching around behind him.   
  
"You **_bastard_**," Gohan growled. "You mother fucking **_BASTARD_**," he said again, lurching forward angrily. "Oh come now, you know this was the only way I could win," Buu replied, head tilted to the side. "Tell me Gohan, do you like my new form? Can you hear your friends and family screaming? I know I can, they`re still trying to fight me even now..."   
  
"... You`re not just a bastard, you`re a god damned idiot too," Gohan bit out, seething angrily and glaring at this new incarnation of the demon with such unadulterated hatred that it could terrify anyone with any remote semblance of sanity and self preservation. "And how is that? Am I not the one who used your own confidence to crush your friends?"   
  
"... You don`t get it, do you?" Gohan asked, grinning like a psychopath while straightening up. "Get what, that your power is triggered by your rage? That you currently have so much anger, you`re threatening to explode? That you`re such an unbelievably stupid twit that you don`t realize that I now know every weakness you have?" Buu asked with a similar grin. "That? That`s all nothing," Gohan replied smugly. "Then what are you getting at, O noble savior?"   
  
"I`m stronger than Gotenks, I`m smarter than Piccolo and I`m a whole lot more brutal than Zangya," Gohan said, still seething but also still grinning like a mad man. "Oh, perhaps you are... And perhaps you haven`t figured a few things out yourself," Buu stated, cracking his neck to either side.   
  
_ Not that you knew me back then  
But it all comes back to me  
  
_ "Figured what out?" Gohan asked with a snort. "Figured out that their power combined with mine is just as great as your own. Before, I was only half as powerful as you are now, but with them? Eh heh... With them, I`m probably a bit stronger than you are," Buu said with a chuckle. "Maybe you are, but you also only have thirty minutes before the better chunk of your power drops like a rock," Gohan replied knowingly. "I learned all about their Fusion Dance in that hour you gave us," he exclaimed.   
  
"Is that so?" Buu asked cheekily.   
  
"Yes."   
  
"Well that`s just too bad, because I won`t need thirty minutes to destroy you. Even if you survive until then, I`m still not using my full power," he grinned. "In fact, I probably won`t be able to for another thirty minutes, when the Fusion wears off and I can access a little surprise one of your friends has hidden," Buu exclaimed. "... What?" Gohan asked with a growl, crouching down a bit. "And why should I tell you? Hm?"   
  
"Zangya`s gem, I`m guessing?" Gohan asked. Buu facefaulted. "Heh... I was right," Gohan said with a smirk. "You`re an absolute moron. Zangya`s the only one who can use it, you`re not her even if you absorbed her," Gohan stated knowingly, causing Buu to snort. "You don`t know that," he growled. "Maybe I do, maybe I don`t," Gohan said, slipping into his own sick little mindset for playing headgames. This was obviously not the same Gohan who had been around mere days earlier, that much was as plain as day.   
  
_ In the end   
  
_ "... It doesn`t matter, you won`t live long enough to see their Fusion break and my power drop," Buu growled ferally. "Oh? You`re certainly wasting more than enough time for me to do just that by standing there flapping your gums like a dolt," Gohan replied. "... Heh... Not bad on the psycho act. Kid," Buu stated, slipping into Piccolo`s voice for an instant and watching as Gohan`s ki fluctuated slightly.   
  
You kept everything inside and  
Even though I tried, it all fell apart  
What it meant to me, will eventually  
Be a memory, of a time when  
  
"This is bad. This is _very_ bad," Goku muttered in concern. "No shit, Captain Obvious," Bob replied dryly, leaning forward and watching as the two warriors played a mindgame that sent a chill down even his own spine, even though he was removed from the fighting by at _least_ a dimension or two. "Can Gohan still win?" Videl asked with even more concern than Goku, hunching forward a bit and trying to get a closer look at the brooding warzone that was about to erupt in battle once again.   
  
"... I`m not sure anymore," Bob stated. "Before, the boy was at least twice as strong as Majin Buu, but that stupid Fusion held the same strength level as Buu himself. Add to that the combined powers of those other two and now they`re both very evenly matched," Bob explained. "Not to mention that those are some of the people who know him better than anyone," Videl interjected dryly. "Indeed. The tables may have just been reversed once again. Even if they`re deadlocked in strength and power, speed and agility, Buu may hold a psychological edge that the boy won`t be able to overcome," the old Kaioshin stated.   
  
"In other words, the fate of the universe is hanging by a string that`s dangling in front of a flamethrower," Shin commented dryly. "Something like that," Bob replied, earning a collective groan from everyone around the ball. "I suppose this means one of us is going to have to go back then," Kibito stated, glancing over to Goku. "I won`t be alive to see this through anyway," he said again. "Which means I`m going to give up my life to bring Goku back to the Earth," he finished finally.   
  
"No, you`re not," Bob replied while getting to his feet. "I`ve been around long enough as it is, done everything possible, but now I only have about a thousand years on this bod` anyway," he stated with a shrug of his own. "No, I`m the one who allowed this all to happen in the first place," Shin interrupted. "I`m going to be the one who lays down his life to bring Goku back, got it?" He ordered. Goku thought the whole deal was a bit too morbid to comment on at all, Videl was siding with him on that much at least.   
  
"Ah... To be young and stupid - and eager to die - again... I miss those days, you know," Bob said whistfully before shutting the other two up. "You`re both young and neither of you see the bigger picture. I`m an old Kaioshin who`s done everything there is to do, you`re both young gods who have your lives well ahead of you. The universe needs some vitality and I`m too damn old to provide it. Let the elders sacrifice themselves so that the good don`t die young," Bob said without a hint of hesitation. "And while you`re at it, I have a nice little secret weapon for you Goku..."   
  
"Eh?"   
  
_ I tried so hard, and got so far  
But in the end, it doesn't even matter   
  
_ On Kaioshin-kai, Order was readying itself for a last, all-out assault, but on Earth, Chaos reigned like never before. Shockwaves powerful enough to level the standing armies of hundreds of worlds rang out across the land of Korin, so quickly and with such blazing intensity that each blast was visible from deep space.   
  
But these were just shockwaves caused by punches and kicks. None of which were being caused by the two warriors fighting at their full powers. It was all the result of light blows being traded back and forth with such raging intensity that it was on the verge of shredding the entire continent like it was nothing. The action was moving by an unbelievably fast pace as Gohan touched down in a blur, rocketing back up off of the ground at such speeds that it shattered the ground into an imprint of his foot, just as Buu reappeared and let loose with his tail, detonating the entire area in a thunderous roar of dust and debris.   
  
Again the two fighters faded from view and again they appeared, trading punches once more while rising higher and higher into the air above their shattered battlefield, throwing blow after murderous blow only to counter each other with the same attack in response each time, even as they continued their ascent into the skies, jockeying for position and jockeying to take other`s heads off at the same time.   
  
Buu slipped a punch through Gohan`s defenses. The teen was surprised and a shockwave again rang out as the action paused, Buu`s fist firmly planted into the youth`s cheek as they hovered up in the lower stratosphere. "First blood is mine," Buu growled enthusiastically at the small trickle he felt run along between his fingers. "How quaint," Gohan replied through grit teeth, swinging his entire body off of Buu`s fist and kicking the other hard enough in the face that Buu also started to bleed, though he regenerated from the injury in a matter of seconds.   
  
"Indeed."   
  
On Kaioshin-kai, hope was being born again. On Earth, a battle fiercer than comprehension was raging without a single moment of pause.   
  
"**_KAME HAME HA!!!_**" "**_CHOU BAKURETSUMAHA!!!_**"   
  
Beams clashed in the skies above the Earth and Gohan and Buu found themselves cleanly deadlocked once again for a number of seconds that seemed like eternity was grinding to a halt, then the duel started to become more intense as both fighters channeled more power into their beams. The ethereal golden hew of the Kame Hame Ha clashed brilliantly against the pinkish tone of the warped Chou Bakuretsumaha, but it seemed like neither attack could hope to take the edge against one another, even as the two fighters started closing in one each other through the force of their own attacks.   
  
They kept coming closer to each other until finally, they were at near point blank range, seperated only by the blazing inferno that rested between them, fighting each other as hard as possible, likely even harder than that. On one side of the duel, Buu was gritting his teeth and counting through the seconds, pumping more and more power into his beam while on the other side, Gohan had his eyes clenched shut and his jaw clamped tight with only a look of strain gracing his expression.   
  
Despite their near-perfect match for each other, or maybe because of it, Buu dropped first, literally flipping down under his own attack and allowing Gohan`s Kame Hame Ha to overpower what was left in a furious burst of ki while redirecting himself. The old demon grinned and launched forward, barely missing his intended target when Gohan twisted out of the way and rained down with a foot across Buu`s neck with just enough force to send the other reeling.   
  
_ I had to fall, to lose it all  
But in the end, it doesn't even matter   
  
_ "**_MASENK_**-" Gohan was cut off, setting up to attack Majin Buu again only to find a fist extended out by some thirty feet to smash into his ungaurded stomach, driving him back as Buu cackled insanely, speaking up loudly as the advantage began to shift, his strength increasing dramatically.   
  
"**_GOTENKS HAS FINALLY YIELDED! ALL OF THEM HAVE!_**" Buu howled gloriously while extending his hand out all across Gohan`s mid-section, forcibly dragging the youth right back for a hard knee into the throat, causing the teen the gag up blood onto Buu`s pants` leg.   
  
"Your advantage as my equal in strength just dropped. It seems Gotenks had more power than he used when fighting me... Amusing, isn`t it?"   
  
_ I've put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go   
  
_ Goku tensed as the halo above his head faded away rapidly, coming back to life wasn`t exactly something that felt nice. That was because the person returning to life had to deal with the same pain they felt when they had died. When he`d been brought back the first time, it had been equivelent to feeling his entire body below the line of his chest go numb and an unbelievable pain where the Makankosappo had drilled through him above it.   
  
_ And for all this, there's only one thing you should know   
  
_ Now it felt like every fiber of his body was being burned out of existence. Again. But it was quick, more than he could say for his first death/reincarnation. A lot more painful but thankfully it was also a lot quicker. An instant had passed and it was over, the halo was gone and Son Goku lived again.   
  
The elder Kaioshin named Bob was dead.   
  
_ I've put my trust in you   
  
_ "Thanks," Goku wheezed out, wiping the sweat off of his forehead and staring at the two ear rings that Bob had given him. "Don`t see how this is the ultimate weapon though..."   
  
"It`s the ultimate Fusion," Bob stated, rolling away from his own body and getting back onto his feet before dusting himself off. "Put one ear ring onto one of your ears, then have your son put it on the other," he ordered. "In fact... Kibito, Shin, do the ritual and show him how it works," the old Kaioshin ordered. "Eh?" Shin asked.   
  
"... That`s right. The Dai Kaio weren`t ever in the know about that and your entire generation was wiped out before you could learn it," Bob grumbled, slapping himself across the forehead. "Okay, Shin, take off one of your ear rings and give it to Kibito."   
  
The younger Kaioshin did as told.   
  
"Good, Kibito, take off the ear ring on your opposite ear and put Shin`s on."   
  
Kibito began to do what Bob had ordered, taking his own ear ring off and putting Shin`s on. Instantly, both mentor and former student were yanked off of their feet and slammed together, fusing in a bright flash of light to reveal a slightly awkward looking individual who was something of a cross between both of them, midway in height between them, favoring Shin`s face, skin and eyes but Kibito`s clothing and hair.   
  
"... What the hell?" The new entity yelped at it`s own existence. "I guess your old ranks make you the new Dai Kaioshin," Bob said aloud. "How do you feel?" He asked.   
  
"... Strong enough to go fight Buu with Goku!" The 'Dai Kaioshin' exclaimed proudly, flexing one of his arms with a grin. "Stronger, yes, strong enough to stand a chance in Hell against Buu in his current state, no," Bob replied dryly. "... Oh. How do I unfuse?" The younger god asked. "You don`t. Potarra Fusion is permanent," Bob answered, causing Goku and Videl both to facefault and the new god to fall over.   
  
_ Pushed as far as I can go   
  
_ On Kaioshin-kai, a chance to save the future was being born. On Earth, all Hell was breaking loose to extremes unheard of in history as Buu hammered away at Son Gohan joyfully, battering the teen all over the place before finally swinging him down towards the shattered rock below, followed by a massive surge of energy that detonated the impact area into a nuclear explosion-sized crater, kicking up a burning mushroom cloud in the process.   
  
_ And for all this   
There's only one thing you should know   
  
_ "**_WHERE IS THE POWERFUL WARRIOR I WAS FIGHTING BEFORE?! HAS HE BEEN REDUCED BACK TO THE SNIVELING LITTLE MOTHER`S CHILD HE WAS WHEN PICCOLO DAIMOU JUNIOR TOOK HIM ON AS A STUDENT?! HAS ALL OF HIS TRAINING FAILED SO MUCH THAT HE CANNOT EVEN DEFEAT THE TERROR THAT ABSORBED HIS OWN BABY BROTHER?! WELL?!_**" Buu howled happily from his place in the atmosphere, promptly dropping down to crouch solidly on what remained of a pillar of rock at the edge of the crater, smirking insanely all the while.   
  
"Now who is buying time? Now who is the idiot? I know you`re in there, Gohan, I can sense your energy... _Brother_," Buu stated with a grin.   
  
_ I tried so hard, and got so far  
But in the end, it doesn't even matter   
  
"Maybe if you`d stop beating the snot out of me I`d tell you,"_ Gohan growled in thought, pushing a charred boulder off of himself and standing up in the center of the crater, trying to shut Buu`s voice out entirely.   
  
"_**COME ON OUT KID!**_" Buu howled out as Gohan wiped the blood stains from his mouth and forced himself to calm down. _"... He`s right. He`s stronger than I am, not massively but definately enough that I can`t easily outrun or outpower him anymore. Maybe if I tried to hit Super Saiyan with my... Damn. That wouldn`t work, I`d blow up the planet,"_ Gohan thought, running through every option he had available at present and doing his best to ignore the taunts of the demon outside, while also ignoring the boiling anger and hopelessness of the demon within.   
  
_ I had to fall, and lose it all  
But in the end, it doesn't even matter   
  
_ Finally thought, the teen sighed to himself, calmly taking a deep breath. "... Videl, Mom... Get ready, I may be coming to join you pretty soon," Gohan muttered aloud, leaning forward and beginning to gather up his strength.   
  
"**_PEEK-A-BUU! GUESS WHO SEE`S YOU!?_**" Buu shouted, appearing in front of Gohan with one hand drawn back to throw a punch.   
  
On Kaioshin-kai, the last chance of the universe had been born. On Earth, the last hope of the universe was slowly being chipped away at, piece by bloody piece.   
  
The battle continued.   
  
_

End Part Twenty-Nine  
  


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_ **Author`s Note:** Cliffhanger! Pheer meh!  
  
**CysticLOL17:** Holy crap! Get well soon dude o_o;;;  
  
**Rayearth010:** His oppinion was his own, he should have definately learned of a better way to say it though. Glad you agree about the four rules.   
  
**Demas:** Hope you`ve enjoyed the battle so far :P As for Mirai Goten and Bra, I started to do one on them a while back but it didn`t work out. Maybe I`ll try again sometime.  
  
**Professor Authordude:** *Belch.* Yep, Kaios taste oddly like a combination of chicken and rice... Hmmm... **_BOB!_**  
  
That`s all for now folks! Get ready for one of the most intense battles to date in the next part though, you`re gonna see everyone pushed to their limits and beyond *Nodnod.*  
  
Enjoy, leave a review and see ya next time! Sh33p out. 


	31. Lose Yourself

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations   
**_Lose Yourself   
  
  
  
_

Combat is generally something viewed by most sane people as a last resort. There were exceptions, the Saiyans and the Aisu both tended to thrive on fighting for their lives. There were even exceptions to that exception, such as the True Warrior Nameks, who thrived but didn`t exactly love to fight every waking second of their natural lives.   
  
Generally, combat is a last resort.   
  
Generally.   
  
Here, on Earth, it was the only option there was, from the start to the finish. It wasn`t the last resort, it was the _only_ resort. As such, the shockwaves of battle tore through the air in a roar of violence more befitting of mythological stories than actual reality, but it was all too real, as one Son Gohan could attest to quite truthfully.   
  
_ Look, if you had one shot, one opportunity  
To seize everything you ever wanted - One moment  
Would you capture it or just let it slip?   
  
_ "_**GAH!**_" He sounded, feeling Buu`s fist ram violently into his stomach for the thirteenth time in the past minute or so. While the past blows had done little other than give him a sick coughing fit, this one had the added effect of causing him to vomit up a good deal of bile and blood out from the impact while lurching forward somewhat, steeling himself and forcibly prying his body off of Buu`s fist before faltering back and landing down on one knee, choking loudly.   
  
"My, how the mighty has fallen. Again and again, you`ve let them down, and now you`ve damned them to an eternity in my blessed stomach," Buu stated, walking forward slowly and coming to stand in front of the downed Son Gohan. "Every time they`ve needed a savior, you`ve failed and it`s fallen to someone else to shoulder the burden. Raditz, the Cyba Men, Nappa, Vegeta, the Ginyu Force, Frieza, the Androids, the Cell Juniors, Cell Senior, Bojack and his lackeys, the surviving Cell Junior, Dabura, Babidee, _me_..." Buu trailed off upon arriving at himself. "Every time, you failed. You let them all get hurt..."   
  
_ His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy   
There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti  
He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready  
  
_ "Wrong," Gohan wheezed out, looking up from the ground and breathing hard. "I crippled Raditz` ability to fight... Got a Cyba Man killed for being weak and making it forget Piccolo, stalled and hurt Nappa when no one else could, beat Vegeta, held off the Ginyu Force, knocked Frieza around like a rag doll, couldn`t help with the Androids, slaughtered the Cell Juniors, destroyed Cell Senior, crushed Bojack and his men, beat the surviving Cell Junior and Dabura both and let you do my dirty work with Babidee," the teen smugly grinned out, fighting off the mental attacks that Buu was throwing at him. "And you forgot the whole Garlic Junior mess," he pointed out amusedly.   
  
"Excuses, excuses... Where is the proud, valiant warrior who so courageously fought against me when the odds were _stacked_ thricely in his favor?" Buu asked, kneeling down in front of Gohan as the youth stared back down, collecting his wits and trying to get his mind clear. "Has he exposed himself to be the coward he truly is? The absolute failure he really is in trying so arrogantly to usurp his father`s place?" Buu asked again. "Where is the Saiyan pride Vegeta bragged so much about having? Is it devoid from you?"   
  
"Yes. It is," Gohan replied, looking up again with a new fire in his eyes. "I never had it to begin with," he growled, drawing back one hand and gathering power up in a flurry before shoving it all forward into a beam, which Buu promptly avoided by bending over backwards at an awkward angle, almost like a rubber band.   
  
"And so, the great, noble savior of the universe rises once again!" Buu jested, righting himself to kneel in front of the other after Gohan`s attack had ended, only to find the youth`s hand right in his face.   
  
"Yes," Gohan replied steely, the shine of golden flame centered around a blue ball of energy still present in his hand. "He does."   
  
_ To drop bombs, but he keeps on forgetting   
  
_ "So... It`s... Permanent," Goku said to himself again, staring at the two ear rings that threatened to end his individual existence, as well as his oldest son`s. "Afraid so, son," Bob replied dryly, hands tucked behind his back as he regarded the Saiyan man with a neutral expression. "... So I guess I`ll have to wait for the next life before he and I can get together," Videl sighed annoyedly. "... Eh?" Goku asked. "I have no idea where that came from," Videl admitted with a shrug.   
  
"Ah... My guess is that if you _are_ soulmates like you claim to be, every past life you`ve lived together has come to an end before you could ever confess your feelings to each other or anything like that," Bob said with a shrug of his own. "... Wow Videl, you two have some crap luck," Goku said monotonously. "Tell me about it..."   
  
_ What he wrote down, the whole crowd goes so loud   
He opens his mouth, but the words won't come out  
  
_ Gohan grit his teeth and Buu winced painfully as the two locked up again, with one`s leg draped across the other`s chest in a kick while the other`s elbow had succeeded in caving in a significant chunk of the first one`s forehead, falling just beneath the base of the tail. "No pride, huh?" Buu asked, feigning Zangya`s accent in the process before drawing back and regenerating while Gohan caught his breath and powered up.   
  
"No _Saiyan_ pride," Gohan replied angrily, lunging forward and catching Buu off gaurd once again, lashing out with a flurry of punches that the stronger, faster fighter had trouble blocking and keeping up with. "Because I`m **_NOT_** a Saiyan!" Gohan yelled, suddenly beginning to speed up even as Buu faltered under the assault, staggering back with each attack the enraged teen was throwing at him, kicking up a dust cloud around the pair as they battled.   
  
"Then what are you?!" Buu demanded, catching Gohan`s right hand and yanking it forward, stopping his own punch on contact with Gohan`s face to try and intimidate the teen, who only grit his teeth before yanking his hand free and grabbing Buu`s arm. "**_I`M A HUMAN BEING!_**" He screamed, violently slinging Buu overhead and then dragging him back down, slamming the ancient demon into the ground before grabbing his tail and tearing him back out of the imprint that resulted.   
  
"And _that_ is what I`m proud of calling myself!" He affirmed angrily, suddenly beginning to spin around and keelhauling Buu facefirst through the rock as a result before tearing him up and out and flinging him into the air, one hand already lit up with an unbelievable glow of blue light, aimed right at Majin Buu. "But then again you wouldn`t know jack about a race that doesn`t pride itself on how effectively it can blow shit up, _would you_?!" Gohan yelled, firing the blast off at the demon`s face, exercising his control and guiding the bolt of energy right to the target, blowing Buu further up into the sky only to phase out of existence and reappear above him.   
  
"But don`t you worry one bit, if that`s what you`re looking for," Gohan growled, catching Buu firmly with his hands on the demon`s throat. "I can do that just fine," he muttered, just as his aura kicked back up into existence. Buu was surprised more than he was hurt but at this rate, he was actually beginning to feel a bit of fear.   
  
_ He's chokin, how everybody's jokin' now  
The clock's run out, time's up, over, blaow!  
  
_ "Well, I`ll be damned," Bob mused as the crystal ball lit up like an oversized Christmas tree ornament on speed, literally overshadowing the natural lighting of the surrounding area and leaving Goku, Videl and Shibito in a dazed shock, and not just at the light itself, or the sudden change of events. "Human pride?" Goku mused. It was almost a little embittering at his son over shunning half of who and what he was but at the same time it was also a little inspiring given how right the teen had been in condemning the Saiyans.   
  
Mostly.   
  
_ Snap back to reality, oh, there goes gravity   
  
_ Gohan suddenly stopped, gagging again as Buu lashed out, throwing a trio of energy rings out and entrapping the teen in the Galactica Donut technique thrice over, then using control to slam the youth down through the dirt and carve out a tunnel underground, dragging him straight back into the sky before constricting the rings tightly shut around Gohan`s body.   
  
_ Oh, there goes Rabbit, he choked   
  
"Definately has Goten written all over it,"_ Gohan thought, calming himself down from the murderous rage dwelling within and instead going back to trying to analyze and outwit his foe, even while struggling around in the trap. "How do you like it? It`s one of Goten`s conceptual moves, he never managed to perform it himself but he had it figured out in time for Gotenks to learn it perfectly," Buu stated with a smirk.   
  
"I figured as much," Gohan muttered through grit teeth, struggling against the rings of energy and failing valiantly. "And do you know I still have over fifty thousand techniques left? Almost all of them from Gotenks` warped mind?" Buu asked, mirroring that psychotic expression that Gotenks himself had made when he first bragged of having such an arsenal. "Then how about not killing me so I can see them all?" Gohan offered, still trying to buy time. "... But what`s the fun in that?" Buu asked sarcastically, throwing his arms up, fists still locked together, and then yanking them down and to his side, drawing Gohan right into range for a number of hard kicks across the body in the process.   
  
_ He's so mad, but he won't give up that  
Is he? No  
  
_ "Screw this," Gohan managed to get out between gagging screams, reaching down deep and glaring at Buu as that murderous rage fought it`s way back up.   
  
_ He won't have it, he knows his whole back city's ropes  
It don't matter, he's dope  
He knows that, but he's broke  
He's so stacked that he knows   
  
_ "**_KAME HAME HA!!!_**" Gohan screamed, igniting his aura once again and using it to send the beam straight into Buu at point blank in the middle of a kick, catching the old demon unprepared and blowing off the rings of energy, throwing his hands forward unsteadily and dumping more power into the beam, propelling himself backwards while throwing Buu further away.   
  
The attack ended after several seconds, leaving the bloodied, battered Gohan to watch as Buu once again regenerated himself, as good as new even after the attack that had just fried off all of his limbs and burnt him black in the process. "You`re not the only one with more techniques than you let on," Gohan informed tiredly, fighting off wave after wave of emotional exhaustion.   
  
"Oh, but I know all of your`s. Every last one of them that you made with Piccolo, every last one that you created with the help of Zangya, every last one of them that you used to help train Goten and Trunks... Oh, I know all the techniques you have at your disposal Gohan, trust me," Buu grinned ferally. "And who said I didn`t make a few secrets?" Gohan half-lied, trying to smile even though one of his cheeks was going numb.   
  
"You don`t have the guts to keep secrets."   
  
"I`ve kept several for almost five years now," Gohan retorted sharply. "I don`t believe you," Buu replied angrily. "Then try me," Gohan ordered, lowering down to the ground in a fighting stance, biding his time and trying to get his wits back in place to continue fighting. "Very well..." Buu replied uneasily, dropping to the ground in a blur and rushing forward, dodging through an assortment of ki blasts which, strangely enough, just faded out with each near impact, never hitting anything several for the random hits that actually got Buu himself, accomplishing nothing in the process.   
  
There was a gut wrenching impact and Gohan tumbled backwards, only to find Buu`s tail wrapped around his throat before he was dragged back and intercepted with a kick into the side, performed in the middle of a twist that sent him free of the tail, but also sent him crashing into the ground for several hard skids and bounces, coming to a stop with a thunderous impact into the side of a cliff wall.   
  
"Where are those vaunted secrets now?" Buu asked as Gohan tore loose of his own body imprint, practically goading Buu into stepping forward. "... Eheh... Notice, no craters," Gohan pointed out with a sick grin, balling one hand into a fist and drawing back before punching the ground directly in front of him. Buu instinctively threw his arms up, expecting a shockwave-styled attack but instead -   
  
"**_AGH!!!_**"   
  
- he found himself attacked from _all_ directions as every single foot of space around, under and above him detonated into a single massive explosions, setting off all of the ki Gohan had sent out seconds before, sending Buu rocketing up into the skies.   
  
"Now do you believe me?!" Gohan demanded, positioned in a crouch with his fist still firmly planted into the ground as a disoriented, badly injured Majin Buu drifted loose, a leg and an arm completely missing, tail singed right off. "Point... Made..."   
  
"I think not," Gohan replied, jumping off the ground and going flying into the air, catching Buu completely ungaurded in the stomach with a knee, sending the ancient godkiller tumbling back in the air for several flips and spins before Buu could stop himself and pop out new body parts, regenerating from the damage and coming to a hover several hundred feet away. "I`m going to kill you," Gohan threatened exhaustedly, wiping his mouth off and cracking his neck to either side.   
  
"And I`m going to do it soon."   
  
Buu paused, then smirked.   
  
_ When he goes back to his mobile home, that's when it's  
Back to the lab again, yo  
This whole rap shit   
He better go capture this moment and hope it don't pass him   
  
_ "Then come get me," he ordered. "Eat yourself," Gohan replied snidely. "After I kill you," Buu retorted, lunging forward and covering the distance to the young fighter in under an instant, hammering him straight down into the rocky terrain below and sending him crashing down hundreds of feet before the effects of his own impact buried him under hundreds of tuns of debris.   
  
"Which won`t be too long at this rate," Buu said with a smirk, only to facefault as the rocks suddenly vaporized under the force of an incoming energy beam, the kind so intense and so sizable that it blew out the entire surrounding area as well, causing a crater a half a mile wide to form as a result of merely sending the attack off. Buu only growled in annoyance before backing up and smacking the attack back down with everything he could bring to bear, causing it to ram back into the ground and punch a hole straight through the planet, burning right out of the other side and continuing off into space in a flash of golden energy as intense as the sun itself, slagging the tunnel walls shut and somehow avoiding blowing the entire world up as a result.   
  
"Nice try," Buu commented cheekily before diving down into the enormous tunnel, laughing insanely the entire time.   
  
_ You better lose yourself in the music, the moment   
You own it, you better never let it go   
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to flow   
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo   
  
_ "**_COME OUT, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE!_**" Buu howled, the echo carrying his words all the way through to the other side of the planet by default. Gohan didn`t reply. Not at first anyway. Buu growled and lowered himself deeper into the tunnel, watching the light fade away and feeling his weight diminish gradually each time before he stopped somewhere near the equator, leering around cautiously, though the demon wouldn`t admit such a thing no matter what proof was brought against him.   
  
"**_STOP HIDING AND FIGHT ME LIKE A MAN! OR ARE YOU NOT THE HUMAN SAVIOR YOU CLAIM TO BE?! ARE HUMANS COWARDS? OR ARE YOU NEITHER?! ARE YOU JUST SOME PATHETIC WEAKLING HALF-BREED CLAIMING TO BE A HUMAN BEING WHILE FIGHTING WITH THE POWER OF A SAIYAN?_**"   
  
"I`m already here, dumb fuck," Gohan answered coldly, just as a pair of strong arms wrapped tightly under Buu`s own arms and around the back of his neck from behind, followed an instantly later by a searing heat erupting from around the two, lighting up the pitch blackness even as the Earth trembled. "Dumb fuck?" Buu asked annoyedly.   
  
"**_DUMB FUCK?!_**" He demanded an instant later, receiving no answer as Gohan slammed him face first into the tunnel wall, punching right through and into a stream of lava, moving far too fast for the resulting flood to hit Gohan himself while using Majin Buu as a shield and doubling the effect with his aura, screaming like a mad man the entire time before punching through one of the continental plates and crashing Majin Buu right through the molten iron core of the planet and letting go, turning upright and executing a chain of high speed Zanzokens on his way back out the way he had come, somehow slipping out before the lava had finished collapsing from the tunnel the two foes had formed in the battering ram right into the fires of mortal Hell.   
  
Gohan finished reappearing inside the tunnel, breathing heavily and drifting back to cling feebly to the wall of the tunnel, hanging to out of range of the pouring lava and tracking Buu by his ki signature.   
  
_ The soul's escaping, through this hole that is gaping  
This world is mine for the taking  
Make me king, as we move toward a new world order   
A normal life is borin', but superstardom's close to post mortem   
  
_ "Have a nice bath, shitface," Gohan muttered, feeling the effects of the exhaustion hitting him full force once more. Adrenaline could only ward off tiredness and physical shock for so long at this point, his body was aching but he refused to quit. He`d taken up his father`s place as the protector of the Earth years ago because no one else could be properly trusted with it, then necessity had forced him to take the role out of personal want, and now he was taking the role of the planet`s avenger out of personal anger.   
  
A far cry indeed from the once innocent little boy who`d been going to visit his father`s friends.   
  
_ It only grows harder, only grows hotter   
  
"Hot... Pain... Hot... Pain... Kill... Hot... Pain... Kill... Gohan... Hot... Pain... Kill... Gohan..."_ Buu kept thinking as he stopped himself inside the molten core of the planet, ignoring the agony the heat caused, ignoring the fact that his outer skin and clothing were both starting to burn away, ignoring even the fight his current absorbees were trying to put up, though they all failed horribly.   
  
"... Hate..." Buu growled, drinking molten iron as a result before beginning to slowly rise through the semi-solid surface of the core before gradually, drifting up through the magma, through the solid rock of the Earth, through the continentional plates, through more solid rock and through whatever else was in his way, grinding through the planet towards it`s surface at a slow, steady pace.   
  
_ He blows us all over, these hos is all on him   
  
"Here he comes,"_ Gohan thought, swinging himself off of the wall and allowing the low gravity to carry him further up before taking control of his ascent and blasting up out of the tunnel in a blur, appearing up in the skies on a direct line relative to Buu`s own path through the Earth`s crust.   
  
_ Coast to coast shows, he's known as the globetrotter  
Lonely roads, God only knows  
  
_ "For the record," Baba began, glancing over at her shoulder. "I don`t think this is the best idea you could have come up with Enma," she muttered. **"I ALREADY KNOW THAT BABA, JUST MAKE SURE HE GETS THERE AND I`LL DO EVERYTHING AS FAR AS HIS UNDEATH IS CONCERNED,"** Enma replied in his usual booming voice. "My, did you have laryngitis when you judged me last?" Vegeta quipped sarcastically. He didn`t remember Enma being _this_ loud. **"MAYBE I JUST FELT LIKE WHISPERING, YOU LITTLE POINTY HEADED SOCIOPATH,"** Enma replied with a snort.   
  
Even Vegeta had to admit that an angry King Enma wasn`t something he liked being around. "Whatever..." He muttered, trying to throw the subject to something else. "How long until I`m sent back?" He asked. **"IMMEDIATELY,"** Enma bellowed. Vegeta only smirked.   
  
It was going to be good to go home.   
  
_ He's grown farther from home, he's no father  
He goes home and barely knows his own daughter  
But hold your nose cuz here goes the cold water   
His hos don't want him no more, he's cold product   
  
_ Goku shook his head, steeling his own resolve and placing two fingers up to his forehead. "I really hope we don`t need to use these things," he said to himself before vanishing. It would take a while to get through the dimensional barriers and cross through the insane distance involved in going from Kaioshin-kai to Earth. Even Instantaneous Movement/Shunkan-Idou/Instant Transmission - depending on who you got the name from - had it`s limits.   
  
_ They moved on to the next schmoe who flows  
He nose dove and sold nada  
So the soap opera is told and unfolds  
I suppose it's old partner, but the beat goes on  
Da da dum da dum da da  
  
_ "**_DIE!!!_**" Majin Buu screamed, erupting out of the ground with a roar and crossing the distance to Gohan with a sonic boom, missing his first strike and managing to connect with the kick he used to follow up, sending Gohan crashing down into the ground a distance away, stabbing through a mile of rock to come to a halt somewhere just out of sight.   
  
"**_IMPERIA FLASH CANNON!!!_**" Buu screamed, throwing his hands back and above his head in classical Gotenks-fashion before launching them forward again in a manner similar to the Burning Attack of Mirai Trunks, throwing off a massive beam towards Gohan`s general location.   
  
Gohan himself merely laid there for several seconds and fought his way back to his feet raggedly, taking a deep breath and then holding his hands forward as the beam slammed into his open palms, forcing him back and down, almost to the extent that his lower body vanished beneath the sheered rock, just as a series of loud, fierce shockwaves tore off of the beam, tearing even more of the brutalized battlefield apart as a result whilst the youth fought to avoid letting the attack tear another hole into the planet, or outright detonate it.   
  
And then the attack simply imploded. It ceased to exist.   
  
Gohan wheezed and collapsed forward onto his elbows and knees, thanking fate for letting him figure out how to perform the Diffusor on a fluke, even though it had taxed him to his limits to pull it off. "I... Don`t think... I can do that again," Gohan muttered, glancing up exhaustedly into the sky at Majin Buu, only to see that the demon was pulling out another attack, this one strikingly familiar in more ways than one.   
  
"I believe Piccolo called this one the Renzoku Senkoudan!" Buu yelled out, firing of hundreds of small ki balls into the air in every direction before each attack paused in a dome around Gohan`s location, hovering ominously. "Perhaps he`ll be pleased if you prove good enough to actually survive it!" The demon shouted again, just as the spheres started collapsing in around the demi-saiyan teen. It seemed Death was going to come and claim him.   
  
_ You better lose yourself in the music, the moment   
You own it, you better never let it go   
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to flow   
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo   
  
_ But Death had a funny way of screwing up every chance he got to lay claim on the life of Son Gohan. This time he failed because of Gohan`s luck with Nameks, but it was also this time that it wasn`t Piccolo who saved him. Each and every single blast slammed hard into an invisible barrier as Dende dropped down from above with a whistling flare of energy in front of the ragged teen, staff slamming into the ground tip-first and reinforcing the small shield dome even as Buu`s attack rained in like shotgun pellets converging on a target from all angles, detonating massively each time until only blackened smoke was visible outside of the dome.   
  
"Thanks Dende," Gohan gasped out, trying to wobble back up to his feet as the Namekian youth yelled out something in his native language, extending the shield dome out a small distance and slightly warping the reality around it as a result. "Don`t mention it, I owe this bastard one too, you know," the other stated fiercely, pouring more of his own power into the shield even as Buu pulled out a Renzoku-styled attack of some kind, bearing the earmarks of an improved Vegeta technique, thus marking it as something Trunks had probably created.   
  
"Where`s Hercule?" Gohan wheezed out, leaning haggardly against a rock as the dome rattled briefly under Majin Buu`s assault. "Over here," Hercule answered, having apparently just finished tucking Bee into his jacket before helping the exhausted teen he was hoping to call his son-in-law someday up onto his feet. "Looks like I shoulda killed him when he was weaker, huh?" Gohan asked, spitting out a clot of something or other, maybe dirt or maybe a scab from the back of his throat. "Yeah," Hercule answered uncertainly, staring up at the black-and-pink lighting around them as Dende forced the dome to stay in place.   
  
"Think I can get healed?" Gohan asked, having to labor just to breathe."Not unless you want us all to die," Dende replied sourly. "It`s taking all my concentration to pull this off and Buu isn`t exactly tiring out so..."   
  
"... _Shit_..." Gohan growled, feeling the anger and despair start to rise again, leading to a desperate choice.   
  
"You might wanna step away Hercule," Gohan warned, raggedly drawing himself free of the former Yuuichirou Kumada`s grasp and staggering to stand just behind Dende, arms hanging limply in front of himself as he began to start the process. "Dende, be ready to grab Yuu and run like Hell," Gohan ordered tiredly. "Eh?" Dende asked, hiding a bit of strain and dumping more power into the barrier, continuing to up the ante as Buu threw off another attack, this time something like the Eraser Cannon.   
  
"Hercule. Be ready to grab him and Bee and run like Hell," Gohan ordered again, even as his face began to curl up into an unnatural sneer. Dende didn`t need to be told to know what was coming, Hercule just stepped back and inched towards the Namek with a bit of fear.   
  
_ No more games, I'ma change what you call rage   
Tear this mothafuckin' roof off like two dogs caged   
I was playin in the beginnin', the mood all changed   
I been chewed up and spit out and booed off stage   
  
_** "Piccolo!"** Gohan screamed, speeding towards his mentor as quickly as he could manage. It had been a hard battle he`d fought alongside the others already, Bojack`s lackeys were strong and he was even stronger himself. "Damn it!" Gohan cursed as he sped up to his absolute limits and beyond. _"Not gonna make it, not gonna make it, gotta move!"   
_  
Piccolo landed with a disgusting thud on the brick road as Gohan rushed onward, pounding out imprints from his running, even as an explosion sounded in the distance, intense enough to catch the boy by surprise and knock him off of his feet, sending him skidding over to Piccolo on his knees, grabbing the downed Namek and throwing up a ki barrier blindly for several seconds in expectance of an attack.   
  
By the time he dropped it, he was staring at a newly arrived Prince Vegeta, who had just appeared on the battlefield intent on ending things with a fierce turnaround. He didn`t know what he was in for...   
  
_ But I kept rhymin' and step-writin' the next cypher   
Best believe somebody's payin the pied piper  
All the pain inside amplified by the fact   
That I can't get by with my nine to five  
  
_ "Ten!" The announcer called out as Gohan got his other foot situated and made it to his feet. He looked expectantly over at the announcer, even as the remaining members of the crowd, numbering about a hundred or two hundred people, two hundred and thirty tops, seemed to inch forward in their seats.   
  
"Both fighters are disqualified! The tournament has ended without a definate victor in the final round!"   
  
"Shit, fuck, damn, vith, bastard, kuso... God damn it," Gohan muttered, falling over and glaring over at Dabura with murder in his eyes as both fighters fought their way back up. It was one of the most sheerly angering moments in his entire life as he shared an intense glare with the Demon King who was going to one day die by the hand of the creature he was going to have to try and drive himself insane to defeat.   
  
_ And I can't provide the right type of life for my family   
Cuz man, these god damn food stamps don't buy diapers   
And it's no movie, there's no Mekhi Phifer, this is my life   
And these times are so hard and it's getting even harder   
  
_ Too many had died today, at far too young an age and with far too much swiftness to ever be truly accepted. It was chilling but it was real, at least they had all died before most could feel very much pain.   
  
The Grand Enforcer would be afforded no such luxury. It was going to die in the most brutal, humiliating way that Gohan could concieve in the short time he had available. Hotaru was _dead_ because of this thing. His presently-unborn brother from the future was missing in action because of this thing. The daughter of his mother`s best friend was missing as well, likely dead.   
  
It was the kind of offense that could drive someone to insane heights of depraved revenge.   
  
And that was exactly what was going to happen.   
  
He paused his unending march long enough to let it get a bit of distance into the skies, thinking itself safe. It thought it could escape him, thought it could kill someone he had been so close to without even realizing it, thought it could smack down his brother and his default-adopted sister and get away with it. It thought, in some stupid little sense, that it was going to turn _his_ Time, _his_ Earth, _his_ universe into some sort of lawless _Hell_ on the mortale plane of existence.   
  
It thought _**wrong**_.   
  
And Gohan fully intended to make sure it knew it`s mistake inside and out. Even if that literally meant doing just that. Taking the Grand Enforcer and turning it inside out. Piece by bloody piece.   
  
_ Tryin' to feed and water my seed, plus   
See dishonor caught up bein' a father and a prima donna   
Baby mama's drama's screamin' on and   
Too much for me to wanna   
  
"Don`t give into it,"_ he kept warning himself, right as another blast smashed into his burning back again, just weak enough to avoid doing serious damage. Once again his eyes flashed teal, though it didn`t last like the last flash had. _"Just makes it worse, can`t control that thing when it gets like that,"_ he kept thinking to himself, clenching his jaw so tightly that he forgot he was even gnawing his cheek, causing a cut to open in his mouth before the next impact of a lightly powered ki blast caused him to release it while screaming.   
  
_ "No no no no no nonononono NO NO **NO!**"_ He yelled in his thoughts, getting angry at failing to avoid the anger already building. It was a vicious cycle and Cell wasn`t exactly helping it.   
  
Another blast and another scream, the referee beside Capel was on the verge of stopping it if not for the fact Gohan kept trying to get up, and halfway succeeding each time.   
  
_ "Why is he pushing me like this? It`ll end up just like it did with the first Cell, Bojack and all the others!"   
  
"I don`t wanna do this! Why is he making me do this?!"   
  
"Please don`t do it again, don`t..."   
  
_ Cell threw another ki blast, a bit stronger than the others, strong enough to do more than just singe, strong enough to literally set Gohan`s back on fire. It hit as planned, but what happened next...   
  
_ "**MAKE HIM PAY!!!**" _ Wasn`t what Cell had intended.   
  
** "_ENOUGH!!!_"   
  
**_ Stay in one spot, another jam or not   
Has gotten me to the point, I'm like a snail   
I've got to formulate a plot 'fore I end up in jail or shot   
Success is my only mothafuckin' option, failure's not  
  
_ It had all been leading up to one split second event. Every single moment of near psychotic rage - or causes of it - that he had experienced since the violence of the battle with Cell Senior, every single moment of losing his sanity, losing his control and losing his soul to that Saiyan demon lurking beneath his skin, the bloodlust that had taken over in his battles so many times before, the relentless determination fueled by an even more relentless rage fueled by more horrific encounters than one could shake a stick at. Trauma after trauma, mind numbing shock after mind numbing shock, battle after battle, death after death.   
  
It was this which fueled him, this which forced him to give in to the demon he was born with, the demon that granted him power day by day, battle by battle, but only if he was willing to allow that sickening hatred to build to the boiling point. All of it was given one more trigger, standing within the sheltered dome of the Kami Dende, watching as the godkiller named Buu rained down death and destruction, knowing that every blast at some extent or another meant to kill him, fired from the power reserves of his friends and family.   
  
That trigger was furthered by the desperation it caused. He needed more power than his recent power-up was going to provide, he couldn`t go Super Saiyan or beyond it without blowing the entire planet apart and commiting suicide, so it was the only choice. Gohan could`ve tried Kaio Ken but in his current condition, it would have killed him even if he somehow got it right. It was the only choice. Anger. The demon. The Saiyan half of him that he damned every single day.   
  
The humanity faded from Gohan`s eyes, his hair started to shift from side to side as the temperature in the dome started rising. The battered terrain around Dende`s shield suddenly shattered again as rocks were torn up by the force of sheer ki piercing a distortion in reality, tears started to form as the teen`s face contorted further into something that looked outright Satanic in nature, veins beginning to bulge across every visible surface of his skin, even as the ground inside the shield dome started rumbling and shuddering while an aura of solid blue light, not a heavenly blue either, lit off of the ground in flames.   
  
_ Mom, I love you, but this trail has got to go   
I cannot grow old in Salem's lot   
So here I go, it's my shot  
Feet fail me not, this may be the only opportunity that I got   
  
_ The tattered remains of the youth`s douji shirt tore away, burning into nothing and leaving his t-shirt alone to cover his upper body, even though it was billowing all over him like it would rip off at a moment`s notice. His boots sunk visibly into the ground, his jaw clenched and grit teeth showed through angrily snarling lips as dried blood flaked away and let new blood begin to drip into the air, only to fly up into the roof of the dome as Gohan put one foot forward and threw his arms out with a yell, eyes going entirely blank as the process began.   
  
"**_KA!!!_**"   
  
_ You better lose yourself in the music, the moment   
  
_ "**_ME!!!_**"   
  
The Earth rumbled again and Buu renewed his attack, causing the dome to begin cracking under the double assault while Gohan drew his hands forward, connecting them at the palms and then lowering them down to his side, the aura within the dome suddenly imploding into a rushing ball of fire between his hands as they seperated from one another. It was almost time, his power was continuing to rise and he was pumping every last bit of it into what he was going to do.   
  
_ You own it, you better never let it go   
  
_ "**_HA!!!_**"   
  
Harder and harder Buu attacked, throwing every single thing he could think of at the sheltered in pocket of reality, even he listened to the words and felt the ki signature growing more and more intense by the nanosecond. Inside the dome, a brief respite from the blindness inducing light on either side of it`s protective walls ended as the ball of fire erupted into a miniature sun, blazing an infernal blue and tipped with an angry orange-and-gold core, surrounded by sparks of lightning.   
  
_ You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to flow   
  
_ "**_ME!!!_**"   
  
Faster and faster, the glow inside the dome became more and more intolerable, rushing with an ever-increasing pitch of thunder so intense that it threatened to deafen all three within for the rest of their lives, which also threatened to be extremely short at the rate things were going. The ball of energy between Son Gohan`s hands began to increase in size for an instant before concentrating back down to the extent that it threatened to rupture like a super nova of some sort, and then, finally...   
  
The shield broke.   
  
_ This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo   
  
_ "**_HA!!!_**"   
  
It didn`t matter one bit.   
  
Buu`s beam met the largest Kame Hame Ha of all time as Dende grabbed Hercule and dove forward, only to be shoved the rest of the way as the beam expanded drastically, sheering through the very fabric of reality, tearing a gaping hole in the atmosphere and slamming into Majin Buu head-on, blotting him out of sight and dragging him along in the same kind of attack that had cost Cell Senior, Bojack and the Grand Enforcer their lives, just as the beam expanded even further, spreading out by almost a mile at the base with a shockwave of golden fire exploding from the center, twisting up into a spectacular golden tornado that promptly enveloped the Kame Hame Ha, squeezing it down, narrowing the entire beam until it was only thirty feet wide, focusing it to such an extent that it could`ve ripped apart a Black Hole in an instant as Majin Buu`s ki signature completely vanished.   
  
Minutes of screaming passed by and the attack came to terrifyingly final end, leaving a gaping hole in the atmosphere where deep space was visible even in the sunlight for several seconds before Gohan toppled forward onto his knees, power fading, life fading faster, still in his Mystic state but still on the verge of dying from having expended so much energy in such a rush.   
  
_ You can do anything you set your mind to, man   
  
_ "Told you... I could... Blow shit up just... Fine..." Gohan groaned out with a triumphant wheeze promptly toppling onto his stomach and passing out as the blackness overcame him.   
  
_

End Part Thirty  
  


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_ **Author`s Note:** Told you I`d make use of Dende :P And told you I`d push pretty much everyone to their limits and beyond, which is exactly what I did. And no, the story doesn`t end here. That is all >_>  
  
**Professor Authordude:** Heh heh... Shibito :D I always thought that sounded more fitting than Kibito-kai, don`t you? *Offers some pepper.* Oh and by the way... Have you had your daily helping of **_BOB_** today? :]  
  
**true platinum man:** That soon enough for ya?  
  
That`s all for now folks, Sh33p out and see ya next time! 


	32. Papercut Reanimation

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations**_  
Papercut Reanimation   
  
  
  
_

When he woke up, it was a familiar warmth that had greeted his senses. That strange, fuzzy feeling that could often be equated to what happened when a Namek or some other healer-type person went to work on him. How long he had been out, he didn`t know. It was obvious that he had done something spectacular but he didn`t quite remember it, a typical response whenever he did anything even remotely akin to what had just happened.   
  
But then again, he had never before done anything remotely similar to what he had just pulled off. He honestly hoped he wouldn`t again either, but for the first time in his life, Gohan _really_ understood just what kind of power must have been lying beneath the surface for all of those years. It was like dipping into a feeling of agony mixed with ecstacy, the kind of disturbing thing one could get addicted to but...   
  
No. He wouldn`t let that happen. At the same time he was overjoyed to be alive, to have tested his limits and broken them as if it was nothing, he was also scared beyond words of what that power could bring. That was when he remembered the old Kaioshin`s words of warning, about his fear being his only preservation. The old man might`ve been a perverted bastard when nobody was looking alright, but he obviously wasn`t a fool, that much was something the youth - who felt like an aged war veteran by now - could be certain of as he painfully leaned forward, feeling injuries mending themselves by the second before finally, the process was over.   
  
Dende flopped over, smirking to himself in resolute victory as Hercule let Bee out of his jacket and plopped down in disbelief at the events that had happened all of five minutes ago. "That... Was absolutely insane..." The people`s champion stated obviously, promptly bursting into laughter in a manner followed by Dende and then Gohan, leaving all three of the unlikely survivors to sit there, laughing at their own exhaustion, laughing at their victory and laughing at their own survival.   
  
It was just a moment that spoke of being glad to have even survived.   
  
_ Why does it feel like night today  
Something in here's not right today  
Why I am so uptight today  
Paranoia's all I got left  
  
_ That laughter came to a dead stop no more than a minute later as Gohan and Dende both shot surprised glares up into the sky. Neither could believe it. The shock of the moment silenced them completely, it didn`t even let them breathe, didn`t let them move. It held them captive and it stunned Hercule into silence as he instinctively grabbed Bee up off of the ground and crammed the pup back into his jacket in a rush, standing up and glancing at the other two worriedly.   
  
That was when he felt it. Far away. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, maybe _billions_ of miles away, he felt it. Human beings weren`t half as shabby at ki detection as some would think, the difference was that people who were gifted at it naturally rather than having to train to further the already subtle gift that let most people know if they weren`t alone or that someone was coming were labelled paranoid rather than granted the proper treatments for it.   
  
You didn`t have to be a natural pro at it to tell what was coming though. It was like feeling a plaguing evil tearing away at all the senses no matter the distance, becoming more intense by the second as a pink star seemed to become visible, even in the bright light of the afternoon sun.   
  
"... Shit," both Dende and Gohan said at the same time, the latter of the two crouching down into a fighting stance while the former raised his staff defensively. Hercule just prepared to throw himself and Bee into the line of fire if needed. Buu had proven in the past that he was unwilling or unable to try and kill him, it was a serious gamble but it was worth taking it if it meant his daughter would get the chance to live again.   
  
_ I don't know what stressed me first  
Or how the pressure was fed  
But I know just what it feels like to  
Have a voice in the back of my head  
  
_ "**_NOW YOU DIE!!!_**" Buu screamed with such a rage that none like it had been heard in close to five million years, shattering the already glassed terrain between the feet of the remaining warriors of Earth and all but through Hercule to his back just by being audible. The demonic slayer of the gods landed with a thunderous crash on the ground a few yards away from the three of them, venting out pinkish tinted fumes, smoke and fire at the same time, all of it geared toward one goal.   
  
"**_SUPER GHOST KAMIKAZE ATTACK TIMES TWO!!!_**" Buu howled, throwing even Dende off of his feet and leaving Gohan as the only one still standing under the intensity of the verbal onslaught, even as the clouds formed up into two small figures, both of them snickering in oddly stereotypical ways.   
  
"Beavis, Butthead, _**KILL GOHAN AND DENDE!!!**_" Buu ordered angrily, pointing the two out even as his vest popped out of view to be replaced by a Saiyan battlejacket, the same type that Zangya had been wearing, even though his face remained nearly the same as before. The two Ghosts twitched around and snickered pervertedly at each other, commenting on things so inanely stupid that only they understood before rushing forward, only to stop on a dime when Hercule lunged into their path, Bee peeking his head up out of the former Tenkaichi champ`s jacket.   
  
"No."   
  
"Move Hercule," Buu ordered in a sneer. "Or die with them," he added. "I couldn`t outrun the blast anyway Buu, you know that and I know that," Hercule stated, taking a wild guess as to what kind of attack the little Ghosts had to be dubbed Kamikazes.   
  
_ Like a face that I hold inside  
A face that awakes when I close my eyes  
Face that watches everytime I lie  
Face that laughs everytime I fall  
  
_ "... Is it just me or is this getting more and more insane by the minute?" Videl asked darkly, watching the chaos resume again. It had been all but heart breaking to watch the near-suicide move play out for her, she could only imagine what ChiChi was probably going through, but it had been even more shocking and angering, not to mention depressing, when Buu had come back, injured to some extent or another but completely alive and well all around, not to mention angry to the extreme.   
  
And then her father had gotten a bit of heroism up out of the pits of no where and decided to try and use himself as a shield. It was actually a little awe inspiring to see Hercule`s transition from the liar of the Cell Games to trying to save the Earth`s last remaining super warriors at the cost of his own life if necessary.   
  
Not that it lessened the shock of the moment, not that it took away from the emotional shocker that kept playing itself out again and again. After a while though, Videl was reminded that she wasn`t sitting there alone. "It seems this incarnation of Majin Buu really is unstoppable," Bob sighed dejectedly, rubbing his brows and trying to find the patience to wait for Goku`s arrival on the battlefield. "Now you know why Shin feared him so deeply," Shibito muttered, standing still since he was too giddy to sit down like the other two.   
  
_ And watches everything  
So I know that when its time to sink or swim  
The face inside is hearing me right beneath my skin   
  
_ "He`s gone to Zangya... The Fusion`s broken," Gohan whispered over at Dende as Hercule tried to hold the two Super Ghost Kamikazes back, even though virtually everyone knew that both the former Yuuichirou and Bee didn`t stand a blazing chance if Buu decided to send the attack forward. In truth, Hercule had one thing going for him, and that was that he had befriended five of this Buu`s power sources. The majority of Buu`s power, intellect, current thought processes and emotions were coming from those five power sources, and all of them didn`t want to see Hercule dead. Only four didn`t want to see the others die but all of them wanted Hercule to survive so Buu was having quite a bit of trouble trying to just kill Hercule.   
  
It was enraging him more by the second too.   
  
"I know," Dende replied in the same tone, standing up straight and whispering again. "I`m going to try and attack him if Hercule fails, make sure you catch him off gaurd if that happens," the young Kami ordered, starting to ready himself for the attack. "Reminds you of old times, eh?" Gohan quipped , lowering into a fighting stance once more. "Not really," Dende replied. "I had the sense of sanity to let you crazy bastards do all the work during the old times," he added with a languid smirk. "Yeah, but now you get to join in on the fun," Gohan quipped sourly. "Lucky me," Dende muttered.   
  
"... Have it your way, Hercule!" Buu shouted finally, trying to send the Ghosts forward and actually succeeding this time. Hercule winced his eyes shut but the two degenerate Ghosts never arrived, instead meeting a hard shock and being dragged off into the distance by an invisible bolt of energy, detonating somewhere out in the distance by the time to the two slackers actually had the natural Super Ghost response to being touched by something.   
  
_ It's like I'm paranoid looking over my back  
It's like a whirlwind inside of my head  
It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within  
It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin  
  
_ "Well... That was unexpected," Dende commented sarcastically before straightening up and glancing over in the opposite direction the two Ghosts had been thrown in, an action followed soon after by Gohan and Hercule, then Buu.   
  
Tien and Chaozu both stood there to greet them, one lowering his hands from the stance of a Kikouha while Chaozu only cracked his knuckles grimly. "Hi guys," the shorter of the two greeted, glancing over at Buu. "You`ve all changed," Tien mused before glancing over at Buu and cracking his neck to either side. "Even Majin Buu," he growled. "Don`t get too off your rocker Tien," Chaozu warned, shifting to the side ever so slightly and lowering back down as Buu seethed.   
  
"You don`t understand..." The demon growled.   
  
"None of you understand..." He said again, leaning forward as the area began to shake and rattle once again, leaving the collection of Earth`s warriors to knowingly brace for the worst. "**_NONE OF YOU CAN POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND THE DEPTHS OF MY HATRED!!!_**" Buu howled, throwing Hercule off of his feet and leaving Tien struggling to stay standing while Gohan and Dende both braced and Chaozu stood, virtually unphased in the slightest.   
  
"It looks like he`s going all out! Again!" Gohan shouted, even as Dende`s staff began to glow at the rounded off, hammer-like portion of it`s upper half. "And this surprises you?!" The Namek finally asked, putting one foot forward and muttering something under his breath several times before slamming the staff down into the ground like a hammer, causing the ground beneath Majin Buu to erupt into a rune-shaped pillar of light, which arced high into the atmosphere before promptly turning into a miles-high tower of fire, erupting into a contained explosion before promptly imploding around Buu`s form.   
  
For all the good it did, it only made Buu a little angrier. "... Well, it was worth a try," Dende grumbled, raising the staff back up and holding it into a defensive posture. Buu seethed a bit more and began to rise up off of the ground, until finally he stopped, an aura of pink fire shooting up around him as both hands went up into the air, only to have his aura blow out by the sheer force of the enormous ball of energy he summoned up. It was the same attack that Goten had used on Bojack in the Room of Spirit and Time, a ball of energy that grew in size from a basketball to an enormous, building-sized death ball, hovering above Buu`s head with fierce intensity.   
  
"**_DODGE THIS IF YOU WANT, BUT IT DOESN`T MATTER! YOU`RE ALL GOING TO DIE WITH THE EARTH!!!_**" Buu shrieked angrily, winding up to send off the attack and -   
  
"**_KIENZAN!!!_**"   
  
- promptly splitting in half at the waist.   
  
_ Hey yo, here we go again with the pain I feel isn't real but in my mind  
But I find myself in places with names, but not faces  
My memory races at speeds hundred degrees  
My soul - it bleeds, devil must've planted the seed  
  
_ "**_Dad_**?!" Gohan shouted in surprise. "What in the Hell is he doing here?!" He added as Son Goku reappeared on the Earth as a living man for the first time in six long years. The entire planet, barren as it was, seemed to rejoice as it`s old savior made his return, throwing the disc of energy at Buu from behind and leaving the demon to split into three neatly sliced parts, one chunk of his tail landing on the ground, his lower body somehow smacking into the terrain behind Tien and Chaozu and his upper body hanging in place in the air even as the blast he`d sought to use on the Earth went flying out of the atmosphere, heading off into deep space.   
  
"Hi there! Remember me?" Goku asked, flashing that million zenni Son Grin for everything it was worth. Buu only twitched once again, flinging his head from side to side irately before his upper body drifted around to face Goku, snorting back anger. "You`re the idiot with the funny transformations I fought earlier..."   
  
"Funny transformations but the day an idiot like _you_ can get away with calling _me_ stupid is the day Hell freezes over," Goku proclaimed dryly. "... According to your oldest son, it already has," Buu replied snidely. "Do you really think you can help, Goku? One of your sons is in me, as is one of your oldest rivals and the son of your only true competition... I know, you`ve come to try and make amends for letting me out by putting me away again, is that it?" Buu rambled, trying the psychological warfare card on Goku.   
  
"Wow... You really _are_ stupid to think you can try and play headgames with me," Goku replied dryly, not phased in the least. Buu snorted. "Perhaps I am, but tell me, do you wonder why I haven`t recalled those bodyparts you cost me a few moments ago?" Buu asked with a grin.   
  
_ Now it feels like my backs against the wall  
I'm taking the fall   
  
_ "... _**GOHAN, LOOK OUT!**_" Goku yelled out, powering up for another attack only to stop and shoot a glance down at Tien and Chaozu as the two both let out screams and found themselves being absorbed into Buu`s lower half. "Who said I was out for your son?" Buu asked cryptically.   
  
_ Whenever I call nobody's responding at all  
But I don't who I could trust, they screaming my name  
I need somebody to help me out of the flame  
  
_ "... Shit," Goku muttered, backflipping only to stop himself upside down and swipe around, literally yanking off the Potarra ear ring from his ear and throwing it, along with the other he was already holding, down at Gohan. "_**CATCH!!!**_" Goku screamed, even as Buu`s tail overwhelmed his defenses and slipped shut tightly around him.   
  
Gohan caught the Potarras in one hand, forming a ki blast in the other and making ready to attack only to stop at an instant. "Gohan! Attacking him won`t do us any good, we have to get out of here!" Dende yelled, grabbing Hercule and making ready to run like hell. "_**NO!**_ I`m not letting him add my father to the list of people he`s absorbed!" Gohan yelled, launching off of the ground and driving hard into Buu`s upper body, even as the two remaining chunks of the creature slipped back into place and the process began with a crash of energy so intense that it threw Gohan back down and into the ground, sending the Potarra flying into Hercule`s free hand on luck alone.   
  
_ All im tryin to do is just master me  
All I want to do is smoke a blaster beat  
But something keeps talking to me consciously  
Responsibly it keeps haunting me  
From dusk till dawn  
  
_ "**_LOOK GOHAN, HE`S FIGHTING ME! THEY ALL ARE, BUT THEY`RE ALL FAILING!!!_**" Buu howled in laughter, even as he began to change again while Goku, Tien and Chaozu struggled against being absorbed, fighting back with every ounce of will they had. In the end though, all the willpower on Earth wouldn`t save them as Buu`s clothing began to change again, as did his expression and as did his ki signature while Gohan sprang back up.   
  
"This is bad," he muttered. "This is _very_ bad," he affirmed before dodging back from another bolt of pinkish lightning. Goku certainly wasn`t the strongest person Buu had absorbed so far, Gotenks had that distinction, but Goku was certainly the strongest at the moment, and he was also the most skilled and experienced fighter in recent history.   
  
It all added up to a key fact: Buu was lethal before, now he was so far off the scales that it passed any measure of comprehension. Gradually, his face began to change, his tail lengthened back out once again until it had gone down below his feet by almost half his own height, becoming stockier and thicker as well, rougher too. The changes of the face were that it became rounder, stronger in the cheekbones, more defined around the jawline. Even the eyes changed, becoming a bit rounder, a bit more distinct as the irses began to lighten to a mixture of green and red, distinctly neither but visible nonetheless.   
  
Buu let out a pleased sigh as the change finished, ending with a new douji shirt and a blue t-shirt beneath it, similar to the outfit Gohan had been wearing before his own douji shirt went bye-bye.   
  
"Yes... I`m complete now..."   
  
_ Everything has something for ya  
That voice inside of your head got to projected  
Paranoia cold sweat   
Shining on your face exposing your purpose and if I   
  
_ "_**IT`S TIME TO END THIS, GOHAN! I`M FINISHED TOYING AROUND WITH YOU!**_" Buu announced, only to pause and slowly float to the ground with warped Son Grin of his own, sending chills down the spines of all three of Earth`s surviving defenders. "Tell me, did those ear rings survive?" Buu asked, calmly crossing his arms over his chest and draping his tail around his neck like a scarf. Hercule gave the answer by opening his hand and staring at them. "Yeah, why?" He asked.   
  
"Give them to Gohan," Buu ordered. Hercule hesitated briefly, glancing at the teen and then doing as ordered. "Good. Now, put one of those on your ear Gohan, then pick someone to put it on their opposite ear," Buu ordered. "Eh?" Gohan asked, fighting off the urge to scream his lungs out. "Those are Fusion ear rings. But they aren`t temporary, pick someone to fuse with, but it will be permanent. Possibly even after you die," Buu replied.   
  
Gohan paused thoughtfully. "I`m going to be a sport since you`re now technically my son, brother and one of my best friends, and I`ll give you... To the count of one hundred until I kill you regardless," Buu stated, pleasantly falling back and uncoiling his tail in such a way that it served to prop him up. "One... Two..."   
  
_ Ripped off your skin I'd probly find another person  
It's nothin worse than trying to bring yourself up back from the dead  
So I advise you listen to that voice in the back of your head  
  
"Dende or Hercule... Shit, Hercule`s not much of a fighter, it`d cost him Buu`s unwillingness to kill him and fusing with Dende would cost us the Dragonballs,"_ Gohan thought, trying to reason through things at a frenzied pace before reaching out with his senses and gritting his teeth. Two ki signatures, both incredibly distant but one happened to vanish at an instant. Buu paused his count as the second ki signature, followed by a third, far smaller power, came thousands of miles closer, only to halt somewhere out near the coastline.   
  
Both of the first two had been jawbreakingly familiar at first, but with one gone and the second now alone after the third also vanished, Gohan was freed up to actually crack a smile of recognition.   
  
"Keep counting," he ordered, promptly placing one ear ring onto his right ear and then using his free hand to grab Dende by the scruff of the neck even as the young Kami reached out and reflexively grabbed Hercule.   
  
All three vanished in a blazing trail of gray fire an instant later, leaving Buu alone to continue counting, even as a slight discomfort formed on his face.   
  
_ It's like I'm paranoid looking over my back  
It's like a whirlwind inside of my head  
It's like I can't stop what I'm hearing within  
It's like the face inside is right beneath my skin   
  
_ "Where are we going?!" Dende yelled over the roar of more sonic booms than he could even begin to register. "Feel that?!" Gohan asked, reminding Dende to try and sense ki even as the two teens and Hercule continued their flight towards the coastline, trailed by the specter of Buu`s villainy, powering on even as a distant silhouette became visible, far away.   
  
It was familiar.   
  
A bit short, a bit muscular, so arrogant even his hair seemed a bit stuck up and dressed in a pair of dark blue pants, a matching tanktop, boots and gloves that were all obviously Saiyan in origin, just like the man himself.   
  
_ The face inside is right beneath your skin   
  
_ "**_IT`S VEGETA!_**" Dende exclaimed jubilantly.   
  
_ The sun goes down  
I feel the light betray me  
  
_ Lightning crashed behind them, fate hung over their heads and hope hovered before them in the form of a Saiyan Prince, back on Earth in it`s darkest hour yet.   
  
Prince Vegeta had returned. There was a fighting chance once again...   
  
_

End Part Thirty-One  
  


* * *

  
  


_ **Author`s Note:** What next?! Will there be a Fusion?! And if so, what will his name be?! Vegehan? Gogeta?! **_TUNE IN NEXT TIME TO FIND OUT!_** [/end cheese] But yeah, guess that isn`t that grand a surprise, eh?  
  
**CysticLOL17:** Glad to see you`re well again :] As for Dende cussing so much... Gotta remember that around that time, he`d spent close to an hour lying on the ground impaled on his own staff after being knocked out by his mentor after watching one of his best friends die after watching the entire populace of the Earth die through the connection provided by the rank of Kami. Quite frankly, he had a right to cuss his brains out, yanno? As for Pilaf... Blame Toei for being stupid on that little detail. And no, Buu isn`t dead yet and he won`t BE dead for a nice while... And I`m going to love every second of it. *Dr Evil moment.*  
  
**CCS AnGeL00:** Yay! How`s Law and Disorder comin`? And Kaito didn`t fit dude to the whole divine name thing, not to mention that Shin was the dominant personality. Hence, Shibito. See what I mean?  
  
**diamondgirl:** Yeah, I felt it was time for someone to do a fic with Gohan(or ANY of the other demi-saiyans for that matter) choosing their human sides over their saiyan sides. I dunno why but that always annoyed me how fanfic authors just IGNORE that little part about them, it`s like they basically forget half their own heritage and become testosterone possessed assmongers(ie one fic I read where Gohan threatened to blow up the moon rather than lose his tail(which had somehow grown back)... Kinda seemed a BIT greedy to me, yanno?). And as you can see, Gohan embraced his inner pyromaniac too >_>  
  
**Professor Authordude:** Nice to see someone else agrees about Shibito. *Tosses some salt.* :D **_BOB!_**  
  
That`s all for now folks, see ya next time! Sh33p out. 


	33. Pardon Me

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I don`t own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations**  
_ Pardon Me   
  
  
  
_

"Vegeta!" Gohan shouted gleefully, coming to a dead stop in front of the Saiyan Prince. "What, no welcoming commitee?" Vegeta asked sarcastically, hovering over the deserted coastline and regarding the motley trio - quartet if he counted the dog too - that had just arrived to greet him. "There would be if everyone wasn`t _dead_," Gohan replied dryly. "... Oh... How quaint. So I didn`t _just_ go to Hell over a lie, I also went there for nothing," Vegeta mused annoyedly, tongue sliding into his cheek with a snort as Dende broke away and drifted to the right, holding up Hercule by his jacket still.   
  
"Let me guess... You, Elfy, Steroid `Fro Boy and the dog are all practicing a new, alternative lifestyle to go along with the fact nobody else is left," Vegeta quipped at the sight of the Potarra on Gohan`s ear, causing all three of the remaining survivors of Earth to glare at Vegeta in unison. "I`ll take that as a 'no' then," Vegeta shot back, taking a bit of delight at their annoyance before Gohan opened his hand. "Put this on your other ear," he ordered, offering the ear ring up to Vegeta with a stern nod.   
  
"... And why should I? I came back to fight Buu, not try to be fashionably braindead," Vegeta snorted. "... You may not believe me at the moment Vegeta, but this is the ultimate weapon. We do this and we`ll be permanently fused, strong enough to wipe the floor with Buu," Gohan replied earnestly, extending his hand out a bit farther. Vegeta snorted back laughter.   
  
"You think I`m going to fuse with one of the Kako-spawn?! _**HAH!**_" Vegeta retorted brashly. Gohan turned serious instantly. He was at his rope`s end after the past half-an-hour or so of one of the hardest battles that had ever been fought for no gains and a good many losses.   
  
_ A decade ago I never thought I would be  
At seventeen  
On the verge of spontaneous combustion  
Woe-is-me  
  
_ "This isn`t the time for that Vegeta," he bit out sternly. "Put the ear ring on or I`ll do it for you," he threatened with a glare, causing Vegeta to start powering up reflexively. "You couldn`t do that if I _let_ you," Vegeta growled, narrowing his eyes. "Watch me. Half of my family`s been absorbed, the other half is dead. The love of my life has been killed a second time and my mentor, your son _and_ our friends have all been absorbed too. I`ve spent the past half hour-" "Being a total idiot. Don`t ever send a half-bred twit to do a full Saiyan`s job," Vegeta replied with his usual tone, obviously still angry over something.   
  
"... This isn`t the time for your pride to screw us Vegeta!" Gohan yelled coldly. Dende reflexively drifted a little further away from the two Saiyans, not intent on being caught in the middle of a verbal shooting war, and not intent on having Hercule and Bee caught up in it either. "... I sent myself to Hell over a fucking lie you little shit, _**A LIE YOUR FATHER PERPETRATED! I SOLD MY SOUL TO BABIDEE AND PAID FOR IT WITH MY LIFE, I DON`T NEED TO MAKE ANOTHER SACRIFICE AND I DON`T NEED SOME LITTLE SHIT LIKE YOU TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!**_" Vegeta screamed, failing to budge Gohan even an inch.   
  
Both of them narrowed their eyes and Vegeta rashly continued. "I am a Saiyan Prince, you do as I say, not the other way around."   
  
"You`re forgetting that I`m not a Saiyan, now put the ear ring on," Gohan growled in reply, holding his hand out a bit further. Vegeta snarled and grabbed the small piece of _jewelry_ from Gohan`s hand, examining it briefly.   
  
"You honestly think this little thing is going to give us the edge?"   
  
"Just. Put. It. On. Now."   
  
Vegeta slowly looked up from the ring, intentionally holding it up above his face and dropping it, only to catch it once again before it had ever fallen for more than a split second.   
  
"Don`t."   
  
_ But I guess that it comes with the territory   
  
_ "You."   
  
_ An ominous landscape of never ending calamity   
  
_ "Ever."   
  
_ I need you to hear   
  
_ "Tell me."   
  
_ I need you to see that I have had all I can take   
  
_ "What to do."   
  
_ And exploding seems like a definate possibility to me   
  
_ With that, Vegeta clenched his hand into a fist around the ear ring. There was a distinct sound of imploding glass and crumpling metal as a result. When he opened it again, Gohan and Dende`s faces had both sagged down in disbelief as the Potarra ear ring`s remains, crumpled and shattered into grains of glassed dust and mutiliated silver, tumbled down to the ground hundreds of feet below. Vegeta only smirked before speaking again.   
  
"Got that?"   
  
Dende was still staring at the small shimmer the debris when all Hell broke loose. Again.   
  
_ So pardon me while I burst into flames  
I've had enough of the world  
And it's people's mindless games  
So pardon me while I burn and rise above the flame   
  
_ "**_YOU STUPID LITTLE FUCKING EGOTISTICAL SON OF A BITCH!!!_**" Gohan screamed in a rage, murderously glaring at Vegeta in such a way that even the Prince was taken aback, only to defiantly rear back up a few seconds later. "_**How dare you talk to me like that**_!" Vegeta yelled, floating forward until he was in arm`s reach of the teen. "I should kill you whe-"   
  
Vegeta was silenced instantly.   
  
For the first time in the forty-three years that he had been alive, for the first time in his entire life, someone had righteously punished him. Someone had finally sought to discipline him without trying to be sadistic. It wasn`t the beatings Frieza inflicted, or the harsh words Bulma would try, but a singular, solid impact. Right across the cheek.   
  
Gohan had just smacked Vegeta hard enough to leave a red welt from the blow.   
  
"**_SHUT THE HELL UP!_**" The demi-saiyan ordered angrily. "You`ve already done enough damage by starting all this shit over a twelve year old hit to your pathetic fucking ego, _**I DON`T CARE HOW OFFENDED YOU ARE VEGETA! THE SAIYAN RACE IS DEAD AND NOBODY CARES IF YOU`RE A PRINCE ANYMORE, GET OFF IT!**_" The teen continued ranting, grabbing the shorter man by the straps of his tank top and yanking him forward.   
  
"Because of your stupidity, the universe is going to die! Because of your unbridled _ego_, your selfish _**FUCKING**_ ego, _**EVERYTHING IN EXISTENCE IS GOING TO BE TAKEN APART!**_" Gohan screamed, shaking Vegeta back and forth in such a way that even the Prince was still too shocked to try and fight back, at least outside of verbally attacking the youth that had so irately gone after him.   
  
"**_A SAIYAN`S PRI_**-" Vegeta was again cut off. "_**YOU DON`T HAVE PRIDE YOU LITTLE FUCK, YOU HAVE AN EGO TWICE AS BIG AS YOUR FOREHEAD!!!**_" Gohan screamed again. "I can still fight," Vegeta retorted sharply, lashing out at the teen with a fist into the cheek. It accomplished so little that Vegeta actually felt a little fright when a dull pain started coursing through his fist.   
  
"Wrong. The only way you could`ve fought was through the Fusion, Vegeta. Use your ki senses, I`m so much stronger than you and Dad that I could probably take both of you _at once_. If you weren`t so fucking _selfish_ to blind yourself, you`d`ve realized that," Gohan growled, shoving Vegeta away and yanking off the remaining Potarra from his ear before throwing it down into the water. "Go back to Hell, Vegeta. You`re useless," Gohan growled, turning back to glare in Buu`s direction.   
  
"How dare you..." Vegeta sneered like a scorned child, finally getting his bearings enough to try and mount a verbal comeback only to be stomped on again. "_Hercule_ has been more of a help in this battle alone than you have Vegeta in your entire, miserable life to _anyone_. You`d just get in the way more than you already do," Gohan pointed out angrily, turning back to the Prince with a glare.   
  
_ Pardon me, pardon me...  
I'll never be the same  
  
_ For the first time in decades, Vegeta was left without a comeback of any sort, only glancing over at Hercule in a shocked manner without a single word to say, or a single attack to throw at anyone.   
  
"... Yanno," Hercule began, glancing up at Dende. "Remind me never to get that guy pissed," he requested. Sure, it was now more than obvious that Gohan could blow up a planet if he wasn`t careful, but now it was even more blaringly obvious that he could verbally slaughter someone if he was provoked enough. "... Will do... Do the same for me?" Dende asked with a slow nod. "Yeah. `Less I`m grabbin` any bystanders and headin` for the hills," Hercule answered, watching the scene play out from a relatively safe distance.   
  
"Anyone have any ideas now?" Gohan asked, turning around to face Buu`s direction and mentally tracking through to the number that the demon was probably on by now. "I`m out," Hercule answered. Bee whined and Dende shrugged, Vegeta still had nothing to say.   
  
"Then I guess we all get an all-expenses paid trip to Lord Enma`s," Gohan growled cynically, drifting down a bit and tightening up into an aerial fighting stance even as the wait continued. It wasn`t going to be very long before Buu arrived to kill them all, but it wasn`t going to be a very easy fight for the demon to pull off, that was for sure.   
  
Not that Buu wouldn`t kill them, no one had any delusions about surviving. They just wouldn`t make it easy. It was because people tended to fight a lot harder when all they had left to lose was the satisfaction of taking their killer down with them. Nothing left to lose meant nothing left to gain but that last bit of victory in making sure you took your enemy out with you, denied him or her of their own gains and that meant that even suicide tactics were optional.   
  
_ Not two days ago, I was having a look  
In a book and I saw a picture of a guy fried up above his knees   
  
_ The entire planet began rumbling once again as Gohan started doing one of the few things he had hesitated for the entire battle, only to stop the instant before the change could really begin. "Hey Dende, you feel that?" He asked, only to realize the Namek stopped short of a reply an instant too soon. Buu popped up into view, grinning smugly with his arms crossed over his chest, douji shirt billowing just a bit in the wind as he regarded the newly re-assembled quintet of warriors and a dog that were intent on trying to defy his will to destroy anything and everything.   
  
"Ah, good," Buu stated, glancing over to Vegeta with a smirk. "I see the Prince has come along t-oo," Buu said, briefly seeming to strain on the word 'too.' Dende and Gohan were the only ones to notice though, even as the demi-saiyan and the Prince both tensed up while Hercule and Bee prepared for their mutual end.   
  
_ "Buu`s ki..."_ Dende observed, gingerly lowering down to the ground and setting Hercule onto his feet before taking back off, hovering up next to Gohan and a few feet ahead of Vegeta, staff held in the same defensive posture he had used earlier. _"It`s changing again..."_   
  
"Feel it too?" Gohan asked in a whisper, also taking note of the change in Buu, and the fact that he was slowing down a bit. Dende nodded in reply, still maintaining his defensive stance despite himself though.   
  
_ I said, "I can relate, " 'cause lately  
I've been thinking of combustation as a welcomed vacation  
From the burdens of the planet Earth   
  
_ "Wh-at`s... G-oing on? Too sc-ared of me to do m-ore than whisper at each other?" Buu asked with more delays this time, even as something akin to a bulbous zit welled up across his collarbone-area. "Actually, we`re trading witty comments about how stupid you look in Kakarot`s fighting uniform," Vegeta cut in, finally having finished piecing himself back together enough to regain his sharp tongue and his sharper glare, drifting around to hover at Gohan`s right, Dende still situated to the left.   
  
"How qu-ain-t..."   
  
"What`s the matter Buu, got the hiccups?" Vegeta chided sweetly. "Need mommy to come pat you`w back?" He asked, still mocking what was apparently happening to the demon. "... Th-at isn`-t funny, Vege-ta..."   
  
"Sure it is. Look at you!" Vegeta yelled, breaking out of his stance and tapping Gohan on the shoulder. "Do you see what I see, Kako-spawn?" Vegeta asked. "It looks like the big steroid-taking bastard overdosed on his candy!" The Prince stated. "What the heck are you... Oh," Gohan caught on after several seconds, dropping out of his own fighting stance and cocking his head to the side. "He does, doesn`t he?"   
  
"Have you both gone nuts?" Dende asked in disbelief, easing up slightly before dropping his hands and his staff to his sides. "Look at him Dende, he`s had too much sugar," Gohan snickered. Dende only rose a hairless brow at both of the two Saiyans before glancing over at Buu as the demon started choking on something. "... Whatever he did, couldn`t have come at a better time for us," Dende muttered.   
  
And that was when Buu all but forgot the three of them, along with Hercule and anyone else who might have been in the area, focusing instead on something happening internally. The strain across the ancient demon`s face was obvious, _something_ was hurting the absolute hell out of him and it was coming from inside. With a grunt, Buu winced and spoke up.   
  
"Stop it..."   
  
_ "His ki is still changing,"_ Dende noted, the only one of the three who wasn`t busy insulting the daylights out of Buu, which meant he could actually observe what was happening without being distracted.   
  
_ Like gravity, hypocricy, and the perils of being in 3-D  
And thinking so much differently  
  
_ "... Don`t! You`ll make me weaker! Don`t do that! _**DON`T!**_"   
  
Suddenly, Buu`s tail shortened dramatically and one by one, he seemed to begin going through clothing. The first being when Goku`s shirts vanished to Zangya`s battlejacket, which then faded to Goten`s upper clothing, followed by Trunks and then Piccolo, then Tien`s shirt and finally Chaozu`s robes, leaving Buu to revert back to the form he had been in possession of since early in the day, causing him to start screaming even as he flashed through the facial features of every warrior he had absorbed.   
  
"What the hell?" Gohan, Vegeta and Dende all asked at once as the process continued, leaving Buu to slowly drift down onto a nearby pillar of rock, even as his features started to change again, reddening a bit.   
  
_ So pardon me while I burst into flames  
I've had enough of this world, and it's people's mindless games  
So pardon me while I burn and rise above the flame  
  
_ "**_NO! NOT THAT ONE! I`LL CEASE TO EXIST!!!_**" Buu screamed in what could only be described as a terrible fear, the kind that few could comprehend, let alone experience.   
  
But by then though, it was already too late.   
  
"**_NO!!!_**"   
  
"What in the Hell is happening?! Is he getting stronger?" Vegeta asked, leaning forward a bit as seven microscopic specs flew out of one of the holes on Buu`s shoulder, suddenly expanding drastically in size to reveal Goku, Goten, Trunks, Zangya, Tien, Chaozu and Piccolo all tumbling down to the ground, mostly unconcious after their ordeal, followed by an eighth figure, just as recognizable and twice as smug as Vegeta had ever been.   
  
_ Pardon me, pardon me...   
  
_ "It`s like I said when we first met: Who I am doesn`t matter, what I`m going to do to you most certainly does!" Cell Junior shouted cheekily up at Buu, flashing the ancient demon the middle finger and sticking his tongue out psychotically.   
  
"**_CELL?!_**" Gohan yelled out in shock as the blue carapaced warrior made his return to the fighting in typically stylish fashion, still flashing Buu the finger and now adding to the insult by crossing his eyes and pulling one of the lids down, still sticking his tongue out at Buu for several seconds before regaining his composure and glancing up at Gohan with a smirk. "I _told you_ I would be the one to kill you, and I don`t intend to see this ugly son of a bitch do _my_ work for me!" Cell announced proudly.   
  
"... He`s even more of an arrogant bastard than me," Vegeta muttered in shock.   
  
_ I'll never be the same   
  
_ "**_HE`S COMING OUT! YOU IDIOT!!!_**" Buu howled, freezing into place as Goten limply started getting to his feet, wiping the blur from his eyes, followed by Goku. "**_YOU`RE ALL ABOUT TO DIE!!!_**" Buu screamed insanely.   
  
_

End Part Thirty-Two  
  


* * *

  
  


_ **Author`s Note:** Still not up to the usual standard I`m guessing, but now you see why the last chapter was so damned anti-climactic :P And you also see that I have a severe **disagreement** with anyone who tries to claim Vegeta has anything more than a little man complex on steroids.  
  
**CysticLOL17:** She-Buu... There`s a disturbing idea. And now, as you can obviously tell, you can see exactly why I delayed answering your question.  
  
**cobra:** Glad someone agrees with me there >_>;  
  
**Professor Authordude:** Now where did I ever actually say I was gonna cheap to Gogeta/Vegehan, eh? *Cackles malevolently.* **BOB!**  
  
**Rayearth010:** Agh x_x Get ungrounded soon!  
  
And the action only picks up from here, folks, get ready for one **_HELL_** of a wild ride before this one ends.  
  
That`s all for now, Sh33p out. Enjoy, leave a review and see ya next time! 


	34. End of the World

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory: Generations   
**_End of the World   
  
  
  
_

"What hit me?" Goten asked while heaving himself up to his feet and glancing around. A fairly dirtied, otherwise unharmed Gohan hovered a good few dozen yards up off the ground in the distance, accompanied by Dende and Vegeta - what was he doing back? - while all around him, his own father, Piccolo, Zangya,Trunks, Tien and even Chaozu were sprawled out, mostly unconcious since he seemed to be the only one able to wake up very easily. Cell Junior was hovering directly above the lot of them, smirking in his usual bastardly way while Hercule and a dog that Goten didn`t recognize were standing in the distance in plain sight.   
  
"**_I CAN FEEL IT! HE`S STARTING TO TAKE OVER!!!_**"   
  
Goten drearily glanced up from Hercule and over his shoulder, immediately snapping to attention and calling on power he shouldn`t have had by that point and flaring up into Super Saiyan with a yell, quickly hopping forward and standing between Buu and the entire group of downed warriors on the ground. "Feel`s like I just got a vacuum jammed into every cell in my body," Goku grumbled dazedly, wobbling up on unsteady legs and gazing up in time to watch as Buu started to shrink, very slowly turning a more reddish color in the process.   
  
"What the hell is he babbling about?" Vegeta demanded annoyedly, drifting down towards the ground and being followed by Dende and Gohan, though the Namek promptly darted over to check on the entire collection of downed and dazed warriors, all but ignoring the pink shift of the daylight.   
  
"I don`t know," Gohan replied after several seconds, lowering down into a fighting stance. "But his ki is changing again," he warned. "I know that, dolt," Vegeta replied with a snort. "But the question is: Just what is he changing into?" Vegeta asked, feeling shocks as the area began to rumble and change, the sea beginning to churn behind them and the sky beginning to blacken and tinge pink as rocks shot up at random, throwing Hercule and Bee into Dende and throwing all three of them back to the ground with a series of thuds only to fling them back up and over the rock in front of them when another jagged pillar shot up under them.   
  
"**_I CAN`T FIGHT HIM MUCH LONGER!!!_**" Buu strained out, screaming again and again in pain that none of the others present could ever hope to comprehend, continuing to shrink down the entire time, skin still darkening to red with each passing second.   
  
_ Everyone came around here  
Everyone else got sick  
And watched the clock tickin' slowly   
BR>_ "I don`t like this," Bob muttered. "Not one bit," he added quickly, watching as Buu continued his transformation, screaming out loudly enough to hurt the old Kaioshin`s ears with every passing second, but seeming utterly unable to move from the spot he was rooted to as it happened. "What`s happening to him?" Videl asked with a bit of nervousness, feeling what she guessed was Buu`s ki signature start changing.   
  
Even though he had lost everyone he was drawing power off of, Buu was actually beginning to grow stronger.   
  
"This is what I was afraid of the most," Shibito growled. "Majin Buu is reverting back to his original state, the one where he`s at his strongest," he exclaimed angrily. "... That isn`t right, shouldn`t he be getting weaker if he`s going to his original state?"   
  
"Majin Buu undergoes changes everytime he absorbs someone. When he started by absorbing one of the South Kaioshin, he began drawing off of someone else`s power, using strength that wasn`t his. Then he absorbed the original Dai Kaioshin for this Time, drawing off of his strength and power rather than focusing on the South Kaioshin, and then when Thin Buu absorbed Fat Buu, the resulting Buu had just enough individuality from the people it absorbed and it`s previous incarnations that it added to his strength rather than variating to match the power of whoever he absorbed," Shibito explained.   
  
"... Just... How strong was the original Majin Buu?" Bob asked.   
  
"You don`t want to know," Shibito replied darkly. "Well, we`re about to find out anyway," Videl pointed out anxiously.   
  
_ Everyone knew the ending  
Opened a bag of tricks  
And stumbled over their own  
They blew minds away   
  
_ At last, even Buu`s scream began to change as the transformation neared it`s finish, throwing off shockwaves of energy all over the place and almost knocking even Gohan off balance while Cell dropped down and landed on the shattered ground near Hercule, Dende and Bee, covering his eyes from the glaring pink flare that had formed where Buu was originally standing. The scream changed in more ways than one though, it became dual in nature, with a second, higher pitched voice slowly beginning to become more and more apparent while Buu twitched around and winced painfully, the second voice beginning to overcome his own.   
  
"Well, this is just dandy," Goku muttered sardonically, staggering over next to his youngest son and taking a fighting stance, though he was a bit too dazed to even think of powering up out of his normal form or anything like that. It was a pretty awkward sight to see Goku standing next to Goten, one in Super Saiyan, the other in normal, looking like some backwards timewarp. "Tell me about it," the younger Son asked through grit teeth, swinging both arms back far enough to cause a small popping sound and then lowering back down into his fighting stance, providing the only lighting other than the maddening pink blaze that was overtaking everything in sight.   
  
"**_I DON`T WANT TO DIE! I DON`T WANT TO BE HIM AGAIN! STOP IT! STOP IT! MAKE IT STOP!_**" Buu howled, finally managing to get his hands up to grab a hold of his head, though his feet were still solidly rooted to the ground beneath him, just as the second voice took over and another face began to take shape, molding into the first. "_**LET ME OUT! I WANT OUT! I WANT TO LIVE AGAIN!!!**_" The voice screeched, finally overtaking the original`s and causing the process to finish up in grand fashion with an explosive blast of heated wind and pinkish light, sending shockwaves across the entire continent as something unspeakably evil was born.   
  
_ It's the end of the world   
  
_ When the smoke cleared, the Buu of old was gone. The devestator had been reborn, and what it had become was something that looked like a sullen, cherry skinned child form of the previous Buu, radiating an aura of evil so pure that it choked those concious to even look at him without being ready for it. This Buu was vicious in every sense of the word, it had no comprehension of emotions past anger, curiosity and sadistic satisfaction, with only a narrow, hair pin trigger in between. It seemed to have lost most of it`s power though, only proving a little stronger than the first Buu that had been unleashed only the day before.   
  
But then the new Buu cracked it`s neck to either side in a manner that suggested the kind of movements the previous Buu had been in possession of, only a great deal more intense, faster and more flexible without having to dip into the powers all of the Buus had with stretching and bending.   
  
And then the new Buu silently regarded those around it with a neutrally angry expression, glancing from the downed trio next to Cell - the one who had set it free - and then over at Gohan and Vegeta, then to the downed warriors behind the two who looked so much alike, and then right at the younger of that pair.   
  
The kid was powered up.   
  
The kid was resolved.   
  
The kid was _challenging_ Majin Buu.   
  
There was going to be _**Hell**_ to pay.   
  
_ Well it's far away   
In a hurricane, twisting slowly   
Now it's gone today   
I'm so happy that it's over   
  
_ "... **_I HATE ALL OF YOU!!!_**" The pure, childlike Buu screamed in a rage, focusing all of his emotions not on Goten, but on the one who had fought it the hardest so far. Throwing his hand up and gathering power, Buu instantly threw away any misconception that it was weaker than the previous incarnation, forming a sphere of energy just as intense as the one that Goku had stopped from being used earlier, then hurtling it right at Gohan with a fierce howl.   
  
The teen replied in kind, kicking the attack straight up out of the atmosphere and then leaning forward with a growl as Vegeta spoke up. "What the hell is wrong with you?! That could`ve just destroyed the entire planet!" The Prince exclaimed jeerily, spurning Buu as a result.   
  
Buu liked that even less than how Goten seemed to defy his mere presence.   
  
"**_DIE!!!_**"   
  
Buu stuck both hands up this time, screaming out as more energy poured out of nowhere into his hand, forming another ball of raw, pink ki just as intense as the one before it, only this time he didn`t stop. He kept putting power into the attack, and in response, it kept growing, becoming larger and more intense as the seconds ticked by, halting abruptly as Buu threw the attack forward, causing it to rapidly close the distance on Gohan, Vegeta, Cell, Dende, Hercule and Bee.   
  
_ It's the end of the world   
  
_ "... He`s absolutely insane," Gohan muttered in shock, promptly thrusting his hands forward and rooting himself in place, only to skid back several inches as he tried to fight the attack off, only barely succeeding in halting it in place as Cell held up his end of things from crushing himself, Hercule, Dende and Bee. It was the first time in his life that the blue carapaced warrior had ever been forced to become openly desperate without keeping up his calm exterior, taking on an expression of strained surprise as the attack started to crush him down into the dirt, inch by inch.   
  
"I can`t hold it!" Gohan yelled, feeling his palms scorch and the ground begin to crumple like paper beneath his weight and the sheer force behind the blast. "Well, I don`t intend to die today!" Cell managed to reply, though he was certain that nobody really heard him since even his own hearing had only barely registed the teen`s words. On willpower alone, Cell reached around the attack with every ounce of ki he could muster, then promptly wrenched the attack into imploding on itself with a Diffusor, squeezing it out of existence and promptly falling over afterwards, blowing off the scorch marks on his hands.   
  
"Whoever decided to make this little shit so powerful can suck my ass," Vegeta growled before powering up, hair turning a slightly darkened shade of gold, eyes fading to a dim tone of jade and body becoming a bit more defined as lightning cracked up around him, only to be overwhelmed by a godlen aura of flame as the Prince launched off of the ground, darting through the air and making due to attack the cherry skinned equivelent of genocide with legs, lashing out repeatedly in a rapid series of strikes with his fists, causing a small sonic boom with each individual attack.   
  
It accomplished absolutely nothing for all of his efforts. Buu merely let the attacks all hit without yielding one bit, taking on no imprints and no damage from Vegeta`s onslaught before carelessly swatting the Saiyan Prince down, right into Goku and Goten and sending all three crashing into the dirt before breaking apart, throwing Vegeta up into a cliff wall and leaving Goten to lay across his father`s chest with Goku himself planted into an inches-deep body imprint.   
  
_ My world, my love, my gun   
  
_ "... Shit," Videl muttered. It was probably the single most accurate word ever spoken on it`s own in all of history given the situation, but even then it didn`t seem to convey the sickened feelings of the three gathered around the crystal ball on Kaioshin-kai, let alone the feelings of those gathered around the second crystal ball at the start of the long, winding path to Lord Enma`s palace. In fact, given the enormity of the situation, Videl highly doubted that there were any words in the English language that properly got across the feeling of the moment.   
  
"No wonder you were so terrified of the original," Bob mumbled, watching with no small degree of shock as the new incarnation of Majin Buu so languidly smacked Vegeta aside like it was literally nothing at all. "Certainly puts Malak to shame," he added, thoughtfully rubbing his chin as the darkness of the moment came through, radiating even through the infinite distances that were the barriers between the mortal plane and the area of the Afterlife that Kaioshin-kai was located in. "Looks like he`s gonna try and blow the entire me damned planet up the first chance he gets," Bob stated dryly.   
  
"Which means he would come here, right?" Shibito asked.   
  
"Yeah, seems `at way," Bob answered. "Any ideas?" He asked.   
  
"Just one..." The newly christened Dai Kaioshin replied hesitantly.   
  
_ Now I'm all alone   
Kept the pain inside   
Wanna torch the world   
Cause I'm breathin' fire   
  
_ "**_NOW DIE! ALL OF YOU JUST DIE!!!_**" Buu screamed, lunging forward as Gohan tensed up while Goten climbed off of his father`s chest slowly, watching the combat begin in earnest.   
  
Gohan was immediately put on the defensive, his only saving grace being that this Buu had absolutely no combat training and was fighting like an irate little kid, save that he was so strong and fast that he didn`t really need formal training to do much damage, even to someone who had gone through the old Kaioshin`s power-up. _"No technique, he`s just fighting at random and he`s still beating the snot out of me,"_ Gohan thought, barely managing to swing his arm into a moving block, stopping no less than seventeen punches in the process and winding up with seventeen bruises across his forearm as a result before grabbing an eighteenth - or was it twenty-first? Gohan had felt several impacts to his body even during his block so he couldn`t tell - and swinging Buu roughly up into the air and following it up with as many machine gun-styled blasts as he could bring to bear in only a few short seconds.   
  
"**_YOU`RE MEAN, DIE!_**"   
  
It apparently didn`t do jack. Buu simply smashed his way through each progressive blast, punching through the onslaught of ki one by one and coming ever closer as a result, screaming out in anger with each attack it made to punch through Gohan`s own attacks, coming within an arm`s reach before shooting out both hands and grabbing a hold of the demi-saiyan`s own, squeezing down just as Gohan let loose a final pair of ki blasts.   
  
"**_SHIT!_**" Gohan screamed as a searing pain shot through his hands and forearms, only to promptly take Buu`s knee straight into the bottom of his jaw, flinging him up into the air and earning another swift kick right into the chest, which would have sent him flying freely if not for Buu`s sadistically tight grip on his hands, which made the kid demon stretch his arms out hundreds of feet to keep his grasp, then promptly start drawing his hands back once again.   
  
At least he would have.   
  
If Goten hadn`t jumped into the fighting and thrown a devestatingly accurate Galactica Donut around the child demon`s elbows and then wrenching the attack into a twist, causing Buu`s arms to bend in a completely _un_natural sort of way, releasing his grip on the older of the two brothers, though Gohan continued flying at Buu, finally scoring an impact of his own on the genocidal brat`s gut with his knee, then driving his elbow into the back of Buu`s neck with a yell, twisting around, grabbing the little demon`s right leg and slinging him as hard as possible through any number of the rocky pillars that had shot up in the past seconds.   
  
"Thanks Goten," Gohan commented with strain, taking a few moments to catch his breath. "Don`t mention it," the younger Son brother replied with something of a smirk, keeping the Donut locked in. "I`m gonna try and bring him back around," Goten announced, giving a hard yank to do just that. Gohan nodded and lowered down somewhat, watching as the rocks began to shatter in every single direction before Buu tore right back out as promised, still held tightly by the ring but not grinning psychotically, shattering the attack in an instant and veering off course to try and attack Goten.   
  
"**_SUPER GHOST KAMIKAZE ATTACK!_**"   
  
In a blur of movement, Buu flew back and bounced off of the ground once again as a dazed-but-determined looking Trunks staggered into view, eyes still visibly foggy from the effects of being used as a power outlet of sorts by the previous Buu, but still managing to pull off a level two transformation and launch off a Kamikaze despite his own shortcomings. "Was wondering when you`d wake up," Goten commented with a fairly Goku-esque smirk. "I was awake the whole time, ditz," Trunks replied with the exact opposite, a Vegeta-like smirk that caused Gohan to actually become a little creeped out at the behavior of the two boys.   
  
"Here he comes," Goten announced, setting himself forward in a manner almost mirrored by Trunks as the two prepared for what promised to be the fight of their natural lives. Assuming they lived long enough to actually fight back.   
  
Their aim was more than a little off though as Majin Buu tore up through the ground behind them, elbowing both boys sharply in the backs of the head and flinging them forward, just as a familiar corkscrew-styled beam flared through the space between them both, slamming into Buu with far less force than most of the previous attacks but still managing to cause almost as much damage when it drilled into Buu`s skin and detonated.   
  
Goten and Trunks caught themselves in time to land with a skid to either side of Piccolo. The Namekian warrior had apparently managed to come to not too long ago, long enough to have removed his cape and turban at the least. He was fighting now and the kid gloves, along with any sense of trying to play as an advisor-only to the more powerful warriors, had come off. "Snot nosed little punk," Piccolo growled, driving forward only to scream in pain as Buu burst back out of the cloud of fiery smoke that had previously enveloped him, slamming an elbow viciously into the Namek`s stomach with such force that Piccolo`s gi shirt all but shattered at the point of impact, not tearing, not burning but shattering like glass.   
  
"**_I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!!!_**" Buu screamed, backhanding Piccolo right to the side and leaving the Namek to be caught in a fairly awkwardly misproportionate sort of way by a newly risen Zangya, who skidded back several yards just trying to keep a relative grip on the larger fighter she had just managed to prevent from becoming a nicely greened batch of pea soup.   
  
"Nice meeting you here," Zangya quipped, off-beat sarcasm and razor wit just as sharp and out of place as ever as she allowed Piccolo to flop down onto his feet, growling out something along the lines of 'thanks and screw you too.'   
  
"**_DIE!!!_**" Buu roared like a child having a temper tantrum for not getting the toy he wanted for Christmas.   
  
"He has a really limited vocabulary, doesn`t he?" Zangya asked annoyedly, leaning forward as Piccolo straightened up and spat out a bit of his own blood. "Not to mention the fact that the little shit doesn`t know when to shut the hell up," Piccolo growled. "For once we agree," Zangya pointed out dryly. "I guess Hell finished freezing over," Piccolo replied sardonically. "That makes it two, goin` for broke?" Zangya asked. "Hell no," Piccolo retorted. "Thank Dende for small miracles," Zangya shot back as the two dove forward again, lashing out at Buu with every ounce of force they could manage.   
  
Buu merely dodged out of the way of every single attack, effortlessly leaving the two to attack the air in tandem each time by hopping just a small amount further than they could reach in the process, grinning insanely all the while before stopping, jumping forward and, with far too much speed for either of his two would-be attackers, roughly kicking both in the gut, then elbowing them in the back of the head in a manner that sent them flipping forward while flying back up into the air to be caught by a golden blur of movement and deposited on the ground.   
  
By the time even Gohan could react, Goku was back in the fray, having somehow pulled out the resilience to go straight up to the third stage of the third level of Super Saiyan, proving his strength with every attack and managing to catch Buu off gaurd as a result, leaving the way wide open for none other than Vegeta to erupt into the fighting, catching Buu completely unprepared and socking the little brat across the cheek with a fist, still at the second level as he and his former -   
  
"This isn`t over Kako-satan, I hope you know that!" Vegeta shouted.   
  
"Not by a long shot, Veggie-head!" Goku retorted sharply over the roar of ki and more impacts than you could shake a stick at.   
  
- or perhaps _not_-so-former rival assaulted Majin Buu.   
  
"**_GET AWAY FROM ME!!!_**" Buu screamed, throwing Goku and Vegeta both back, leaving the two to skid right along into Dende`s grip as the young Namek, accompanied by Hercule and Bee, and soon joined again by both Goten and Trunks, followed moments later by Piccolo and Zangya, threw up his energy barrier trick once again, waiting for the precise moment to smack Buu in the face with it and send the little runt skidding along to nosedive into the ground as the barrier, this one a sphere, started rotating around at a furious rate, promptly slinging the now-burnt little cherry flavored psychopath away as Buu dropped the barrier once again.   
  
"**_I`LL KILL ALL OF YOU!!!_**" Buu threatened glaringly, springing back up to his feet in a blur and thrusting one hand skyward yet again, just as Shibito appeared at the core of the group with a shout. "Not yet, Majin Buu!" He yelled, just as all of them vanished in a flash of light, leaving Buu to angrily glare at where they had been standing as Gohan finished regaining his senses. He had been letting the others deal with Buu only to try and catch his wits after the battles he had gone through already, but not it seemed as though he was all but alone in facing the little demon. Again.   
  
Or not.   
  
"Now, are we going to let them have all the glory or are we going to take this little shit apart like we should have at the start of this mess?" Cell Junior asked, landing jeerily next to Gohan. "Think Tien and Chaozu are still out?" Gohan asked. "I wouldn`t doubt it if a random blast you shot off trying to stun Buu earlier offed them," Cell replied morbidly. "Way to boost my confidence, Blubie," Gohan muttered annoyedly. "All in a day`s work, ass ferret," Cell replied cheekily before aiming himself broadside at Buu, a movement promptly followed by Gohan in such a way that it left two of the bitterest enemies alive to stand back to back as allies for the first and probably the only time in their mutual existence.   
  
"Shall we?" Cell asked with a small bit of anxiousness in his usually smug voice. "Let`s," Gohan replied with the same tone, just as the two fighters lit up like miniature suns flaring to life, filling the area around them with golden flames as Buu finally twitched into looking over at them, glaring maliciously at the two who had, by bad luck or stupid intentions, stayed behind to try and challenge him.   
  
With twin yells, Son Gohan and Cell Junior rocketed forward, closing the distance to Majin Buu in a pair of golden exhaust trails before lashing out, Cell`s aura automatically shifting to a more orange-reddish tone as he used a Kaio Ken of some kind, boosting himself up to the point that he could reasonably fight alongside his enemy. In a frenzy though, the fighting was joined as Buu threw his own attacks out, still managing to equal the output of both of his opponents even though he was having to divide his attentions in the process.   
  
The two were like opposing mirrors, whenever one threw an attack, the other threw it`s exact opposite at the same time. Gohan kicked, Cell punched. Cell elbowed, Gohan kneed. Gohan threw a headbutt, Cell used his shoulder and in a matter of seconds, Buu had lost his keen advantage, faltering under the dual assault from the two hateful foes, both of whom twisted around to try and smash Buu`s head with their knees at the same moment, but the demonic child was too quick for that, blurring forward and out of the way and causing Gohan and Cell to clash once again, letting off an enormous shockwave between them from the simple impact of their knees together.   
  
"Damn," both of them growled out at the same time as Buu came to a pinpoint stop in the distance, grunting out in disapproval as he craned his neck around at an impossible angle, only to liquify his body to turn around an instant later. "And I thought the first Buu was a disgusting bastard," Cell muttered. "Welcome to the club," Gohan replied dryly as he touched down, an action followed by his blue enemy-turned-ally. "Any bets on his next move?" Cell asked. "He`s probably going to scream at us..."   
  
"**_YOU GO TO HELL! YOU GO TO HELL AND YOU DIE!!!_**"   
  
"... And then he`s probably going to rush us," Gohan pointed out with the same degree of accuracy as before, promptly having to dodge out of the way as Cell flung a leg out and effectively impaled the bratty demon on his foot, kicking Buu back and right into Gohan`s elbow, which drove hard into the back of the small demon, sending Buu into the dirt and right into a kick in the face, which propelled him up off of his stomach and straight into a forearm smash across the right side of the back of the head, sending him to tumble forward and skid along on the ground away from the two, only to spring back up and scream out irately.   
  
"And now he`s going to try and blow up the planet," Gohan predicted. "Any ideas?" He asked. "You put on a pink, frilly to-to and try to destract him while singing 'Oops! I did it again' as I beat the shit out of both of you with a screaming lamb named Nubby the Stumpmeister?" Cell asked with a vague tinge of seriousness in his voice. "... That wouldn`t work," Gohan muttered annoyedly. "True, but at least I`d be able to die laughing at you," Cell pointed out honestly as Buu screamed again.   
  
"_**STOP IGNORING ME AND DIE ALREADY!!!**_"   
  
"Oh look, he`s expanding his vocabulary!" Cell jeered. "Not to mention the ball of energy above his head," Gohan pointed out, just after Buu had shot his hand up into the air and formed a small ball of ki above himself, quickly expanding it and pouring more and more raw, unadulterated energy into the attack until it had grown to the size of a small city, still pouring ever more ki into it until the entire area began ripping apart sheerly because the sphere was even _existing_ to begin with, let alone the fact that it was still growing by the yard every single nanosecond.   
  
"... Ah, fuck me with a golf club..." Cell muttered in disbelief at the sight of the attack, which soon blotted out he and Gohan`s views of the sky, still growing until it had built up it`s own gravity field, which both fighters promptly felt as chunks of the Earth began to rip up into the attack, Gohan`s hair promptly spiking entirely up for the first time in years as his clothing even started to flow upward under the force of the insane ball of ki.   
  
_ Well, It's the end of the world   
Well, It's the end of the world   
  
_ "**_NOW DIE! DIE BECAUSE I HATE YOU BOTH!!!_**"   
  
With that, Buu threw his attack and...   
  
_ It's my world...  
My world, my love, my gun   
  
_ "I made it in time!" Shibito announced as he and the surviving warriors of Earth popped into view with a blast of light, only to be greeted by Videl`s utterly sickened expression and the old Kaioshin`s darkened appearance. "Yes," the elder god replied balefully. "You made it back in time to watch the Earth explode," he stated gravely, just as the words sank in for those gathered. In a blinding flash of pink light, the entire area around the crystal ball all but faded out of view, the rumble of the explosion proving itself audible even through the weak recepting abilities of the old Kaioshin`s looking glass.   
  
Even then though, the roar of the blast couldn`t overcome the sickened scream of the one person bound more tightly to one of the three combatants on Earth than anyone else present, transcending even the bonds of blood or friendship both.   
  
"**_GOHAN!!!_**"   
  
_

End Part Thirty-Three  
  


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**Author`s Note:** ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER! This brings the total up to how many of these damn things I`ve hit you people with? Sorry about the whole chapters-got-shorter thing, one has to remember the semi-rush involved from when I was writing this stuff down :P But anyway, the chapters`ll get a little longer but don`t be expecting anymore 60+ kb parters from this one.  
  
**diamondgirl:** Yes, Beavis and Butthead just fit the role quite perfectly, didn`t they? O.o Flying saucer, eh? *Hands her one.* A dragon with a remote controlled flying saucer... Be afraid. Be _very_ afraid.  
  
**cobra:** He was quite the witty bastard, wasn`t he?  
  
**W.V.F.:** Glad you like it so far, and glad someone agrees with me about Vegeta`s fething ego. God that annoys the hell out of me when people make it seem so freaking noble when it`s just Vegeta being an arrogant bastard.  
  
**CysticLOL17:** Congratulations on giving the 100th review for Generations :D *Hands Cystic a cookie.* As for an answer to your question: No, Cell didn`t get absorbed. I`ll leave ya hangin` on that one, and if you figure it out, **please** don`t leave it in a review and spoil it, `kay? And yeah, he was one of my personal favorites from the series. Zangya, Gohan and Goten, followed closely by Piccolo and Videl, just barely inch him out for me.  
  
And if you`re wondering, I spent three days waiting to upload the last part by accident, so I went ahead and uploaded this one as a little bonus for makin` ya wait :P  
  
That`s all for now folks, Sh33p out and see ya next time! 


	35. Last Resort

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


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** Hybrid Theory: Generations**_  
Last Resort_   
  
  
  


The universe had seen many, many things in it`s fourteen or fifteen, maybe sixteen billion years around. It had seen good and evil, born witness to their perpetual state of war, watching during the times when good and evil sided to deal with things neither could handle alone, seen it when one triumphed and witnessed when one failed. It had seen drama, love, hatred beyond words and more tragedies than you could count if you spent an entire lifetime trying. It had witnessed enough desperately fought wars, evenly matched battles and heartbreakingly futile assaults to make even the most bloodthirsty Saiyan warrior flench, and it had seen enough cruelty to wonder why it even existed anymore.   
  
Twelve seconds ago, another epic, drama-filled battle had ended in yet another tragedy. It had been just one more, technically, even at the localized level. Today, the universe had witnessed heroism at it`s best and villainy at it`s worst, watching the inhabitants of a planet die out so completely that nothing was left above the single celled level other than a few token survivors, and then it had watched as a few bold warriors fought to try and bend the rules of life and death to bring everything back to the way it had been, only to be stopped by one heinous demon that seemed to know no bounds.   
  
Twelve seconds ago, there had been a scream the likes of which most people spent their time praying to never hear. The scream had been caused by the destruction of the once beautiful, then barren world known as Earth, and the scream had been produced by the vocals of a sixteen year old girl by the name of Videl Satan. The scream was simply a name, it hadn`t needed to be anything else to get the point across and in truth, she couldn`t really think of anything else to say at the time. It was just one of those moments where anything less was wrong and anything more was just too much.   
  
"**_GOHAN!!!_**"   
  
And it sounded again, because thirteen seconds ago, two lives had ended. Death had finally laid claim on Son Gohan and Cell Junior, though nobody was going to be mourning for the second of the two anytime soon.   
  
Videl Satan had done many things in her life, even if she was only sixteen years old. She had fought in, and so far had won out in every Tenkaichi Budoukai she had been in, becoming the first person to win both the Junior and Senior tournaments, in a row no less, as well as becoming the first female fighter to do either in all of the tournament`s long history. She had learned how to fight, she had developed a few oddball magic powers that simply appeared when she needed them and she had witnessed a good many harsh battles in her lifetime.   
  
There had also been a few times where she`d been turned into an emotional wreck, not many, but it happened with any normal teen and it happened with Videl too. Most of the times she had ever cried it came out of frustration or exhaustion, the few times she had cried for other reasons could probably be counted on one hand, and most of those tended to involve the youth that had just died in some way or another.   
  
Gohan`s family and his mutual friends with Videl were all a good bit taken aback as well. Goku showed his shock the least, surprisingly enough. He hadn`t ever expected to outlive his first son, no parent did, but given his own experience with death, he didn`t much feel very grievous. Piccolo was about at the same level, both he and Goku were dreadfully silent, exchanging only empty glances from time to time. Goten was disturbingly unphased, the boy was either in shock or so focused on something else that he wasn`t paying attention.   
  
Trunks had about the same reaction, bar the infrequent wince and the occasional lip quiver that came as a result of having thought of the newly deceased son of his father`s rival, whom he thought of like an adoptive older brother in a sense, being dead. Zangya wasn`t exactly openly grievous, she had a bit of excess moisture in her eyes but given that the woman wasn`t really one of the best at conveying her emotions, she was oddly reserved for the moment, simply wiping her eyes with a small nod to herself and glancing around. Dende was sitting on the ground holding his head in his hands in disbelief and Hercule was just focusing on trying to soothe his daughter while Bob was shaking his head and Shibito was muttering curses to himself.   
  
Vegeta on the other hand -   
  
"Table your grief for now! We can mourn him later but Buu will be here in a matter of seconds!"   
  
- handled his emotions with more of a warrior`s attitude for it than anything else. Grief could come when they actually had time for it, but he wasn`t exactly winning much agreement from the others present. "Stop being a dick, Vegeta," Goku ordered angrily. "I just lost my son back there..."   
  
"I know that you stupid bastard, but Buu will be here any second now!" Vegeta replied sharply. "If we`re all turned into puddles of angsty slop then there`s no point in trying to fight back!" He pointed out loudly, just as a resounding crack echoed in the distance, pink lightning crashing out of a black cloud to arc through the skies.   
  
"... Grand," Zangya muttered, lowering down into a fighting stance. "Here he comes," Piccolo growled with a snort, just as all of the warriors collected began to gather up their power. It wasn`t going to be an easy fight by any means, they probably wouldn`t win and they knew that all too well, but regardless of who won, they were intent on making sure that Buu didn`t walk away without a nice number of scars and bruises, even if the little brat could regenerate through them.   
  
_ Cut my life into pieces   
  
_ "**_END OF THE LINE!!!_**" Buu screamed, landing in front of the group and charging forward with a feral, sadistic laugh, passing right by Piccolo and Zangya to nail Vegeta in the stomach, contorting his own body an instant later to kick Goku in the face before straightening back up, grabbing both Saiyans and slamming their heads together in a flash of movement, only to sling forward as Goten, still in the second level of Super Saiyan, joined the fray, elbowing Buu in the small of the back and lashing out repeatedly in such a way that he seemed to vanish into a golden fireball of fists and feet, battering the genocidal little demon with everything he could bring to bear only to fly back and skid along the surface of a lake almost a half a mile away when Buu promptly smacked him.   
  
_ This is my last resort   
  
_ "Can`t you use those gems?" Piccolo asked, glancing down at Zangya while Trunks made his bid to attack Buu. "... I didn`t want to," Zangya replied dryly, only to cut off any witty reply that Piccolo could have made to try and force her into doing it. "But I guess I got them back out for just such an occasion," she muttered, reaching up to the necklace and gingerly taking a grip of the gem attached to it, promptly vanishing into a pillar of light an instant later.   
  
_ Suffocation, no breathing   
  
_ "**_SCREW YOU!_**" Trunks screamed, diving hard beneath a vicious punch that sent force flying through the air to put a fist sized dent into a mountain more than three miles away. The demi-saiyan child was more skilled and far more precise though, landing on his hands and springing back to tag Buu squarely across the jaw and carry himself to swing up and stand on the little demon`s chin, backflipping up, twisting out of the way of Buu`s head tail and crashing his elbow angrily into the demon child`s skull, only to screech an instant later as Buu`s head tail liquified, vanishing back into his head and reappearing a moment later, already wrapping around Trunks` throat.   
  
"**_DIE!!!_**" Buu howled, cocking his head back and then flinging it forward in the same way someone would headbang at a concert, causing his tail to sling Trunks towards the ground while at the same time strangling him.   
  
_ Don`t give a fuck if I cut my arm bleeding   
  
_ "No!" Goku shouted sternly, planting his foot squarely into the kid Buu`s stomach and using his own body to cushion Trunks` impact into the ground, catching the boy and swinging him around by his wrists to kick Buu across the face, wrenching him free of the demon`s tail in the process. "Owe ya one," Trunks commented through a coughing fit as Goku set him down, then jumped backwards, dodged past Majin Buu`s randomly aimed kick and elbowed him in the gut once again, this time trying to force Buu off of the ground.   
  
"**_YOU DIE TOO!!!_**" Buu screamed, liquifying his stomach in a manner that caused Goku to lose his balance, going right through the little demon as it backflipped, kicking him hard across the forehead and literally extending it`s legs out hundreds of feet in the process, just as Vegeta returned to the fray, catching Buu off gaurd with a flurry of kicks and punches, causing Buu to forget about Goku and return his focus to the other fighters, just as Piccolo made his presence known, lashing out angrily and crashing across Buu`s cheek with a kick that could shatter mountains easily.   
  
Buu only grit his teeth and kneed Vegeta in the stomach, wrapping around Piccolo tightly with his arm as it snaked out and covered the Namek like some sort of rope, then using it to smack Vegeta across the face with Piccolo`s head, flinging the former Kami into the Saiyan Prince an instant later and blasting both of them over at Goku.   
  
With a sick laugh, Buu lunged at the group again, only to shriek in pain as a shimmering rope of some kind whipped up out of no where and wrapped around his body, constricting tightly and holding onto his upper arms before a solid yank veered him off course and sent the demon skidding hard, face first into the ground.   
  
"Forgetting someone?!" Zangya asked snidely, promptly yanking the string-rope up and towards herself, tearing Buu out of the ground and into a vicious punch into the middle of the face, crumpling Buu`s head into the main portion of his body. The reason she had taken up wearing a set of Saiyan battle armor was blaringly obvious though, while her hair was now a solid, bloody shade of red, and her skin a lime tint of green, her body mass and power both increased quite dramatically, to the extent that most of Zangya`s regular clothing would`ve been shredded in an instant. The nature of the material of the battle armor though - including the bluish spandex-like parts - managed to hold quite nicely.   
  
"Now I know why she doesn`t use those gems," Vegeta growled as he and Piccolo rolled free of each other, staggering up to their feet uneasily. "She looks ugly as shit," he pointed out with a smirk. "Reminds me of what a Namek woman would look like, actually," Piccolo replied dryly. "... Oh goody, you should both get married and have children to commemorate the fact that both of you are ugly green shits!" Vegeta quipped with a biting sarcasm, earning only a silently condemning, 'screw you' kind of glare in that oddball language of expression he and the Namek had developed over the years.   
  
"You should really see yourself right now Piccolo, it somehow makes all of this fighting worth while," Vegeta snickered insultingly. "... Just... Shut... Up..." Piccolo growled before diving back into battle, followed by a maniacally cackling Prince Vegeta.   
  
_ Would it be wrong, would it be right  
If I took my life tonight  
Chances are that I might  
Mutilation out of sight  
And I`m contemplating suicide   
  
_ "We need to come up with some kind of plan," Bob commented as the battle rapidly progressed ahead of them. "But what?" Shibito asked. "I doubt any of us would do much good," Dende pointed out annoyedly. "I`m only decent enough to put up barriers he can`t break through easily and I`m low on power, you`re too old, he`s not powerful enough and Hercule and Videl both aren`t exactly strong fighters here," the young Kami stated darkly.   
  
Then they started hearing something crackle behind them. Bob quirked up an eyebrow, Shibito contemplated just blowing his own head off and Dende sardonically glared at his feet. "I forgot about that little catch," he grumbled, just before an explosion of purple lightning threw all three of them, along with a haplessly shocked Hercule and a yelping Bee, flying off of the small hill they had been occupying, just as Videl stood back up, growling like some sort of demon in her own right.   
  
"_Little_ catch?!" Bob yelled annoyedly at Dende while Videl started walking forward, angrily glaring past all three of them and heading for the battle, surrounded by a purple-tinged aura of electricity, setting even her halo to take on something of a grim look to it, tinging it from whitish gold to goldish black, edged off with a bit of dark purple. Even her hair looked angry, raising up as the bands holding her hair into pigtails all but shattered, vaporizing an instant later as the teenaged girl stuck a hand out, her aura gradually twisting into her own grasp before taking an all-too-familiar shape and solidifying somehow, magic made manifest.   
  
"I`ll make you pay," Videl growled, still walking at a slow pace towards the ever increasingly violent melee, the Silence Glaive firmly grasped by both hands a second later. "For everything you did to everyone," she added firmly, even as the weapon started sparking at it`s forked blade.   
  
_ Cause I`m losin` my sight   
  
_ "**_ALL OF YOU WILL DIE!!!_**" Buu screamed, decking Trunks across the face and at the same time, kicking Zangya in the side, sending the two crashing into each other only to backflip up and over Vegeta, lunging forward and making his attack again, only to find it blocked as Goku reappeared, throwing a forearm into the demon`s path and giving Vegeta the crucial time to backflip up and kick Buu in the face with both feet, throwing the little demon back a few feet while Goten appeared, slamming into Buu shoulder-first with a scream.   
  
By the time Buu had recovered, Goku was all over him with every punch the living legend could throw, trying to overwhelm the demon on sheer force alone only to take a stiff punch to the gut and falter back, promptly twisting out as Buu kicked him across the cheek, sending him crashing into the ground an instant later only to spring back up, hair trailing behind him like some sort of cape.   
  
"**_KAME HAME H_**-" Goku was promptly cut off from finishing his attack, halted as Buu`s attack came in the middle of putting his hands forward to fire the beam and leaving Goku disoriented for several seconds. It cost Vegeta dearly though, since the Prince charged in at the exact moment that Goku faltered back, only to watch Majin Buu twist out of the way by inches and cackle insanely while sucker punching the Saiyan warrior right in the small of the back with a sickening snap.   
  
A second pass as Goku went on the attack again, flinging under the screaming Vegeta only to be smacked aside as Buu grabbed Piccolo by the leg at the last instant, just as the Namek had been ready to throw a kick, using the larger warrior like a flailing weapon to send Goku flying after Vegeta, with both warriors slamming violently into the ground and skidding alongside each other to a complete stop a good distance away.   
  
_ Wish somebody would tell me I`m fine   
  
_ "Kah... Kakarot," Vegeta panted out, propping himself up on his elbows painfully as Goku hauled himself to his feet, only lightly hurt by being smacked with the equivelent of Piccolo baseball bat. "Yeah?" Goku asked, glancing down worriedly at Vegeta as the Prince dragged himself to sit up at the edge of the trench his body had made, seemingly unable to stand up at the moment. "I think my back`s broken," Vegeta wheezed out, trying to collect his wits again. "That`s not good," Goku stated surprisedly, recieving a 'no shit, Sherlock' type of glare from Vegeta in reply. "Can you try and use ki to puppet yourself?" Goku asked.   
  
"No," Vegeta replied, still breathing hard. Piccolo went streaking by overhead with a sonic boom, smashing into the ground with a thunderous explosion off in the distance as Vegeta took a deep breath and glared from the demon that had broken his spine to the girl that was walking over towards it at a methodically slow pace. "I have an idea though," Vegeta grit out, glaring back up at Kakarot even as the last bit of feeling in his legs faded away.   
  
"Eh?"   
  
"Geh... Get Kaibito or Shibito or whatever the hell his name is, to teleport Dende to Namek," Vegeta ordered, promptly passing out before he could continue. "... Shit," Goku growled, glaring over at Buu.   
  
_ Nothing`s alright   
  
_ In a blur of shockwaves, Goten and Trunks, followed a few seconds later by Zangya, were back in the fray, striking at Buu repeatedly and finding every blow they threw lead to four that they had to block. Buu`s lack of technique was more than compensated by a virtually endless supply of energy, and his lack of size was compensated for by being able to expand his body, as well as speed and strength that seemed to jump from around the same level as Goku`s own at his present state to high enough that Gohan would`ve been hard pressed to try and fight regardless of the conditions.   
  
"I don`t think we can win!" Trunks shouted in despair, dodging past one of Buu`s fists only to yelp in shocked pain when the demon backhanded him across the neck, while Goten sprang up and kicked at Buu`s forehead, missing badly only only to recover with the same level of skill that his father had worked decades to earn, crashing both knees into Buu`s hand, then flipping forward, spreading his entire body out and compressing himself as best he could to complete the flip and headbutt Buu in the side of the face, leaving the way wide open for Zangya to lash out several times, catching Buu off gaurd with a backhand, a straight punch and a number of rapid kicks to follow things up before Buu sprang back and kicked her squarely across the chin, sending the woman careening towards the upper atmosphere and leaving Goten to handle himself alone.   
  
"**_I`LL KILL YOU!!!_**" Buu screamed loudly, throwing a wild haymaker at Goten, who ducked underneath it, jumped up and spin out of the way of Buu`s tail, kicking the little demon in the side of the head before putting a bit of ki into his right hand and trying to smack Buu with a shout. "**_NOT IF I KILL YOU FIRST!!!_**" He screamed, barely missing his attack and finding himself smashed in the gut by Buu`s shoulder.   
  
_ Nothing is fine   
  
_ An instant passed by as an eternity for the mind of Son Goten as he lay there, draped across the genocidal runt`s shoulder before finding himself brutally flung to the ground, pinned by his shoulders while Buu howled, the tip of his tail suddenly becoming sharper than a dagger over the course of a split second as Goten squirmed around, finally giving up when Buu pressed his shoulders into the ground to such an extent that the dirt began to crumble.   
  
"**_NOW DIE!!!_**"   
  
_ I`m running and I`m crying   
  
_ Buu was going to kill him, right then and there. He would have too, it was all but pre-destined from the looks of things, but instead of ever being able to do that, Buu groaned in agony and found himself pried off of young Goten as the Silence Glaive stabbed ruthlessly into the middle of his back with both blades, igniting a fiery pain within the miniature planet destroyer as the youngest Son sprang back up to his feet, on the verge of attacking out of sheer reflex.   
  
He didn`t though. The sight before him was shocking enough to break even natural reflexes, namely the sight of Majin Buu screaming his lungs out with an enraged expression as he was held aloft by the Silence Glaive currently being used to impale him from behind, held by an even more enraged, outright divinely vengeful looking Videl Satan, hair flowing around as a purple-black fire had risen up all around her and the weapon she was using, her eyes blanked out by a neon purple glow, clothing still the same but skin a little paler than usual.   
  
"Why don`t you?" She asked, just as Buu screamed from being shocked as a magic-based series of lightning bolts exploded off of the blades of the Glaive, all of them either occuring within Buu or arcing away to hit him directly. It was the kind of sight that could frighten someone badly, and even Goten, a child who`d already seen more than a few frightening things as it was in his brief lifetime, felt a tinge of fear at what was happening before him.   
  
Buu on the other hand, just screamed and flailed around on the weapon, even as Videl tilted it in such a way that the blades were aimed skyward. "_**I HATE MAGIC!!!**_" Buu howled through the first pain that anyone had inflicted on it in eons. His hatred for magic was well grounded though, given that Majin Buu was made from a combination of excess bubblegum, a few hundred demon spirits, a grand deal of magic and a literal sweet tooth, it left him vulnerable to few things. Being chewed on, exorcised religiously, being zapped by the magic equivelent of having a lightning rod rammed through him in the middle of a thunderstorm and/or being deprived of sugar-based junk food were all among them.   
  
"Videl?" Goten asked, uneasily straightening up as the teenaged girl mumbled something under her breath and used the Silence Glaive to smack Buu into the ground, promptly giving him the chance to free himself by stabbing his still-sharpened head tail into the ground as an anchor, allowing the blades of the Glaive to slice their way back out and somehow ignoring the undescribable agony of the magics that were still tearing him asunder long enough to charge forward and try to attack the youth head-on.   
  
_ I never realized I was spread too thin  
Till it was too late and I was empty within  
Hungry, feeding on chaos and living in sin  
Downward spiral, where do I begin  
  
_ "And I hate you," Videl growled, apparently not even having heard Goten as she slashed out, possessing neither the speed or physical power of any of the other warriors but more than making up for it in the fact that the result was still the same. Buu screeched as an inches-deep gash run across the right side of his chest, virtually from no where, only to heal like the prior stabbing wounds a few seconds later as the little demon backed away and growled.   
  
"Videl?!" Goten shouted to try and get her attention, slowly moving to stand next to the girl but maintaining a bit of distance from her aura. "What?!" Videl finally barked after several seconds, still completely focused on Buu despite the question. "... Nevermind," Goten muttered, lunging forward at Buu and striking out several times. The little demon dodged each attack despite his attacker`s uncanny speed and agility, kicking Goten aside and touching back down onto the ground on all fours with a feral growl. "_**NOW YOU DIE!!!**_" Buu screamed, a glow beginning to radiate out of his mouth only to be stopped instantly as Son Goku dropped back into the fight in every sense of the word, slamming both of his feet into the small of Buu`s back from above and driving the little demon face first into the ground with cratering force.   
  
Goku backflipped off of Majin Buu, landing on one hand with both legs bent at the knee, the tips of his boots grinding into the turf lightly for all of a fraction of a millisecond before he dodged to the side in anticipation, allowing Buu to irately lash out at where he had landed only to tap two fingers to his forehead and vanish, reappearing instantly behind Buu on the ground.   
  
A number of thunderous impacts rang out as the two fighters battled sideways across the landscape, never turning to face one another once in the process, striking out with elbows and mule kicks, backhands and awkwardly fired ki blasts before Buu finally broke the pattern of the fighting, slinging a hand onto Goku`s shoulder and then swinging around ala Tarzan to crash both knees into the Saiyan`s face, leaving Goku a little on the bloodier side of things before jumping up over Buu`s follow-up and grabbing the demonic runt by the tail, flipping himself upright and landing on his feet before swinging Buu around to impact into the ground with a thunderous roar.   
  
_ It all started when I lost my mother  
No love for myself and no love for another  
Searching to find a love upon a higher level  
Finding nothing but questions and devils  
  
_ "**_I HATE YOU! GO AWAY!!!_**" Buu commanded angrily, letting off a massive blast of energy that threw Goku back by hundreds of feet, only for the genocidal brat to find himself all but fried by another bolt of magic-based lightning, flinging him into the wall of his own crater before another bolt sent the entire area that Majin Buu had already blasted out himself into detonating in an even larger explosion, though this one later off no sort of shockwave and it didn`t even cause the air to rush around near the location of the blast.   
  
Goku landed with a hard skid as Buu rocketed back up out of the blast, badly scorched and mad as hell by any description, touching down and dodging past a third bolt to close the distance with Videl in a blindingly fast instant, knocking the girl across the cheek and watching her aura promptly burn out, followed an instant later by a clank and a thud as the Silence Glaive smacked into the ground, dropped from the impact.   
  
A bleeding, unconcious Videl Satan continued onward in the air for several seconds before smacking hard into Zangya as she touched down, knocking the muscular femme fatale back several feet and at the same time, being caught by her. "Fancy meeting you here," Zangya commented dryly, setting Videl, who now sported a deep gash across one cheek, down onto the ground before standing back up straight and watching as Goku charged back in, meeting Buu blow for blow for several seconds before the little demon overwhelmed him, slipping past the skilled Saiyan warrior`s defenses and sending him flying back down into the ground a few seconds later.   
  
"I really hate days like this," Zangya growled, watching again when Goten and Trunks charged back into the miniature war that had broken out on Kaioshin-kai, sending off flurries of punches and kicks as best they could, while Buu blocked every single one of them with nothing but a loud, psychotic laugh, jumping up and kicking both in the gut with a split and then punching them both in the face before gravity could even set in. Both boys went flying back, both bruised badly and both grinding their teeth fiercely, right into Zangya`s arms, again rocking the short woman back a few feet before she righted herself, setting the two down on their feet and dashing forward.   
  
"**_DIE DIE DIE!!!_**" Buu screamed, whipping out with his tail only to watch as Zangya dodged to the side, leaving behind a solid after image that hurt to touch, followed by dozens more as the woman closed the gap between herself and Buu, jumping over the little runt at the last second and allowing all of her after images to slam hard into him, knocking Buu off balance for just long enough for Zangya to catch herself on her hands and swing her entire lower body out like a whip, knocking out his legs and leaving him airborn for a second only to have Son Goku slam into his back, shoulder first, sending Buu skyward with a backhand an instant later.   
  
"We may have a chance at this yet," Zangya commented, wheezing the words out while leaning her upper weight onto her hands, which were resting on her knees. "I don`t think so," Goku replied uneasily. "I`m starting to lose power," he added worriedly. "Then we`ll just have to finish it at the first opening," Zangya replied with a smirk. "Too bad, I was actually starting to enjoy myself," Goku replied with a sarcastic smirk of his own. He didn`t like these life-or-death battles anymore, but that didn`t mean the Zangya Effect of sarcastic camaraderie didn`t work on him.   
  
_ Cause I`m losin` my sight  
Losin` my mind  
Wish somebody would tell me I`m fine  
Nothing`s alright, nothing is fine  
  
_ "This is suicide," Trunks muttered. "I don`t even think suicide comes close," Goten replied darkly, glancing down at Videl worriedly as Hercule started running towards the three of them, concern more than painted across his face. "Any ideas?" Trunks asked, watching Goku and Zangya charge in at Buu, intent on trying to finish the battle as soon as possible. He could sense Goku`s power starting to slowly drop and it wasn`t a very pleasant thought given that Goku was presently the only person in the entire collection of people who had the power to actually deal with Buu head on.   
  
"Can we fuse yet?" Goten asked.   
  
"No, I`m straining just to stay beyond Super Saiyan..."   
  
"... Same," Goten admitted after several seconds, thinking quietly to himself. "Can`t you just pull some new technique outta nowhere or something?" Trunks asked uneasily as a shockwave almost toppled both boys over, and _did_ send Hercule off of his feet while Videl was inched along in the dirt. "... Gimme a second," Goten replied with the same uneasiness as his friend, diving into the memories he had retained from Bojack until he ran across two very special instances.   
  
"I`ve got two I can pull off right now but I can`t do both," Goten stated.   
  
"What are they?" Trunks asked, shielding his eyes from the resounding blast of light that sent Zangya crashing to the ground and left Goku to deal with Buu alone for the duration. "Thunder Claw Attack and something called a Spirit Bomb," Goten replied. "Pick one," he ordered. Trunks spent several seconds thinking to himself before basing his choice off of the same thing any normal kid his age would use as an excuse for something.   
  
"Spirit Bomb sounds cooler, so try that one," the older boy ordered, trying to sound confident and smart in the process. "Alright," Goten replied, fading out of Super Saiyan and jumping up into the air, not bothering with conventional chants or anything like that, instead reaching out across Kaioshin-kai after establishing the beginnings of the attack. "Wha...?" Trunks facefaulted. "Shouldn`t you be in Super Saiyan? You didn`t run out of power, did you?!" He yelped. "No, but it`s better to do this normally," Goten remembered, almost immediately hearing a voice that proved audible to Trunks as well.   
  
_ "I always **knew** he`d teach one of my techniques to someone else,"_ the voice stated annoyedly. "... Am I going insane or did you hear that too?" Trunks asked, glancing up at Goten sardonically. "... Well then we`re both nuts," the younger boy replied dryly as Hercule, yelling out something about trying to ignore demons in his head as he jumped the remaining distance to his daughter`s side. _"Not quite boys,"_ the voice said after a nasal-sort of laugh.   
  
_ "My name is King Kaio, and if you`re going to use my best technique, then you`d best do it properly,"_ the short god ordered from an unbelievable distance away. "... Yeah, we`re both nuts," Goten commented sarcastically, trying to forcibly pull energy from the surrounding countryside. _"**THAT ISN`T HOW YOU DO IT!!!**"_ King Kaio reprimanded angrily. Goten stopped instantly, looking as though someone had just caught him stealing food. Again.   
  
_ "Good, now this is going to take a bit of planning but we can still pull it off. Trunks, I can`t order around the Kaioshin so I need you to go tell them to take Dende to New Namek, they already know the situation. Hercule, I`m not a demon in your head so shut up and keep an eye on Goten, Buu won`t attack you so **keep in his path** if he tries to attack him, got it?"_ King Kaio asked as Trunks darted off towards Dende and the two oddball Kaioshin, kicking up a small trail of dust in the process.   
  
"... Uh... Hey, `Ten, you hearin` that?" Hercule asked uneasily, getting to his feet as Bee peaked his head out. "Yes, now do what he said," Goten ordered dryly.   
  
_ I`m running and I`m crying  
I can`t go on  
Living this way  
  
_ "**_DIE!!!_**" Buu howled, throwing off a series of rapid punches in vain. Goku dodged, winding around the small demon and sandwhiching his head in between a pair of overpowered blasts that shocked the little runt senseless for several seconds, leaving him wide open to a field goal styled kick as Goku drifted back, wiping the blood from around his mouth with a drab, dark expression.   
  
_"Shit,"_ Goku thought, reflexively imagining the sound he had mentally assigned to whenever he passed that last point of no return that signaled he was out of power. It was the sound of ChiChi screaming at him over one of the dozens of times he had shattered a glass cup or bowl on accident.   
  
It was the sign that heralded his power all but dying.   
  
Which is exactly what it did. In a flash of golden light and a crack of thunder, Goku`s hair almost whipped back into place like some sort of rubber band, his eyes losing their irises and fading back to their usual black tone as the golden aura and the golden tint of his hair both faded out, leaving him back at his usual self, albeit quite a bit bloody with a few rips to his clothing and more than a little visible strain at just trying to keep airborn for the time being.   
  
Not a good thing when Buu was charging in at full speed with an insane scream, tortured air shattering with the sound barrier dozens of times a second in the process.   
  
"**_TIME TO DIE!!!_**"   
  


_ End Part Thirty-Four  
  


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**Author`s Notes:** *Awaits the death threats for all the cliffhangers he`s thrown out as of late.* :P  
  
**CysticLOL17:** Thus is the greatest irony of the most intense enemies: They`d usually make good friends if they dropped the beef long enough to actually speak to one another. Originally I had considered her being wracked with sobbing and all, but after a while I figured that it`d be **way** too cliched, yanno? And yeah, nice to see the other rivals(Goku and Vegeta, Piccolo and Zangya, Goten and Trunks) all working together for once, eh? As for Gohan and Cell... They`re dead man. *Shrugs.*  
  
**Professor Authordude:** They did, didn`t they? **BOB!**  
  
**Mystic SSJ3 Gohan:** Half the fun is learning that the heroes just lost their best chance and now have to think something else up on the fly. Therefore, you have Goten pulling a Spirit Bomb out of his ass. The question here is: Will it work? I`m also kinda guessing the rest of your review got cut out by FF.net for some reason or another, feel free to mail it sometime if ya want :P  
  
**W.V.F.:** Like I said: Half the fun is learning that the heroes just lost their best chance and now have to think something else up on the fly. And yeah, Vegeta seemed to get his ass kicked more and more after going SSJ, though I`m not too sure about the sexual molestation thing you thought up. For one thing, I highly doubt Akira Toriyama(the original creator of DB/DBZ) would ever write anything about that. For another, Vegeta was basically reduced from a Prince to an errand boy who wasn`t even close to the top of the proverbial food chain and got passed up for the Ginyu Force by a four eyed, pimply green midget named after milk. One would think that`d leave ya just a **LITTLE** bitter, don`t you? And Shibito was kinda pressed for time, any longer and he would`ve just gotten them all killed, while they were the closest to where he popped up.  
  
**Yume/Rayearth010:** Yay! As for why I killed Gohan... *Points up.* I don`t think I need to repeat mehself a third time, do I? :/ As for your first fic, log in next time and I`ll follow it through your profile :D  
  
**cobra:** Cell Junior`s strength is something even I`m puzzled over. You factor in the whole mess about how Cell Senior grew two or three times as powerful by coming back from what was left of his regenerative lump(probably a result of the Saiyan DNA) and it becomes a mess, while if you leave it to be explained about Kaio Ken(something he`s been proved as being able to do), that still doesn`t fully explain it because he`d have to be injured constantly to pull such a thing off. On a rough guestimate though, I`d say he started Generations off as Gohan`s greater equal in actual power(but not speed), and by the time he popped up again he was probably close to, or right at the bottom power levels for SSJ3. Still not sure though, so take that with a grain of salt.  
  
**diamondgirl:** *Points up again.* Sh33p no repeat self again >P As for the Bob thing... I was really wondering if anyone would pick up the fact that he never says "God damn" and only "Me damn" :P And yeah, CJ wouldn`t be the only one to keel over and die laughing if he got his way, simply because of the look I can see on Gohan`s face... *Imagines.*   
  
_Gohan:_ *Blasts Sh33p to hell. Then adjusts his halo accordingly. Stomps off.*   
  
Ow. *Dusts self off and calmly heads for the exit.*   
  
That`s all for now folks! Sh33p out and see ya next time! 


	36. Defy You

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


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Hybrid Theory: Generations

**  
_Defy You   
  
  
  
_ "I don`t think I`ll be dying again anytime soon!" Goku shouted out at Buu, promptly lunging to the side at the last second and thrusting his feet out with every ounce of strength he could muster, kicking Buu right in the head as the demon closed the remaining distance, using his own momentum against him to send the little runt skidding across the ground for several hundreds of feet, away from Goku and away from anyone who might be injured and unconcious or...   
  
Well, Goku didn`t want to think about that. Bad enough Vegeta had been crippled from the waist down, even worse that Goku himself had run so low on power that he`d dropped out of Super Saiyan Three, but most of the others were also down and... And...   
  
"Holy crap," Goku muttered to himself, watching as small sprinkles of ki started lifting from the ground all around him, heading against the wind that was coming up from behind him, causing Goku to come to the startlingly obvious realization that someone among his little group of friends and family that had gathered to fight back the equivelent of cherry flavored apocalypse was using the specialized last resort technique he had learned from King Kaio and made into one of his own trademarks.   
  
Someone was charging up for a Spirit Bomb.   
  
_ "- he tries to attack Goten, got it?"   
  
_ Goku blinked, glancing over his shoulder and promptly dropping his jaw at the sight of the wild haired boy who looked so very much like himself, holding his hands above his head and beginning to gather every ounce of ki that the old divine planet could hope to offer, pulling it all out with the same skills that had taken Goku himself months to learn, even with constant failure at trying to achieve mastery of it. Goku had seen some insane things in his after/lifetimes, but this was probably the one that took the cake in a pretty big way.   
  
"Gohan wasn`t kidding one bit," Goku affirmed to himself with a gulp. _"Goku!"_ King Kaio called out. "Yes?" Goku answered on reflex, feeling for Buu instinctively even while communicating with his former semi-roommate/teacher. _"Listen up, we`ve got a plan brewing right now, but we need you and anyone else who`s concious to buy us time as best you can. Right now, the Dai Kaioshin and the old East Kaioshin are both on their way to New Namek with Dende, they`re going to revive Earth,"_ Kaio stated gingerly.   
  
"But Earth probably doesn`t have enough power even if everyone there gave up their energy..."   
  
_ "I know but it`s all we`ve got right now. Goten`s trying to pull together a Spirit Bomb and without a place he`s familiar with, it`s going to be a whole lot harder. Kaioshin-kai isn`t exactly known in myths and legends for giving up it`s power easily,"_ the North Kaio stated dryly. "... Right. Want me to do it?" Goku asked gingerly, watching as Buu exploded up out of the ground in the distance with a fairly angry expression.   
  
_ "No,"_ King Kaio replied. _"Goten`s already started and it`d cost energy to transfer, you`re also the only one standing with the skill to stall Buu long enough to accomplish what we need done,"_ King Kaio explained. "I understand... Now if you`ll excuse me," Goku mumbled, lowering into a fighting stance at the sight of the genocidal runt screaming right for him.   
  
_ "By all means,"_ the god replied, leaving Goku alone.   
  
_ You may push me around  
But you cannot win  
  
_ Buu crashed right into another unexpected obstacle though, flying off course for Goku as a familiar green leg draped in purple pair of gi pants slammed into the side of his head again, followed promptly by a number of thunderous shockwaves that threw the small demon flying down off course with a howl, while Piccolo landed after a number of flips next to Goku, who was already waiting for Buu with both hands drawn back, hammering the little runt across the chin and sending him flying towards a nearby cliff wall at the speed of sound.   
  
"Never figured you would be one to play baseball," Piccolo commented with a smirk while Goku righted himself, leveling his comrade`s expression with the infamous Son Grin an instant later. "I _am_ friends with Yamcha, ya know," he stated. "True, but Gohan couldn`t play a sports game if you paid him," Piccolo pointed out as the entire mountain attached to the cliff shattered apart, with Zangya literally erupting out of the center and meeting Buu head on in the literal sense, headbutting the little runt back over at Goku and Piccolo. "You`ve never seen him try then, huh?" Goku retorted as he and Piccolo lowered into mirroring stances next to each other.   
  
"Tell me about it some other time," Piccolo ordered. "Assuming we survive, sure," Goku replied, just as both fighters launched forward and met Buu with a pair of solid, Earth shattering kicks into the shoulder, stopping the runt`s momentum at an instant and sending him back over to Zangya, who gingerly smacked the demon airward with a thunderous shockwave before pausing long enough to crack her neck.   
  
"Is it just me or is she scarier than Hell in that form?" Goku asked dryly. "She`s always scary," Piccolo replied with the same tone, just before launching after Buu.   
  
_ You may throw me down  
But I'll rise again   
  
_ "**_STOP BEATING ON ME! DIE!_**"   
  
With another shockwave, this one obviously intended given it`s pinkish outline, all three fighters went smashing back down into the ground and into body imprints, pinned by forces none of them could hope to challenge in their present conditions. "**_I HATE ALL OF YOU!!!_**" Buu screamed angrily, throwing it`s head back and gathering ki before throwing it forward again and opening his mouth wide to unleash a wave-styled beam of destruction down on the trio below.   
  
At least he would have, if not for the pint sized boot that struck him in the chin and sealed his jaw shut to his own attack.   
  
"**_NYEH NYEH!!!_**" Trunks screamed, promptly zooming down to the ground as Buu`s entire head exploded into a pink fireball, the resultant shockwave further grinding the three fighters already trapped in body imprints into the ground and forcing Trunks to hold himself on his feet through sheer determination, even though he had expended enough power to fall back to the first level of Super Saiyan in the process. Determination and the score with Buu that had just become even more personal than before given that his father was now crippled and unconcious a few hundred yards away.   
  
"Not bad," Zangya admitted while hauling herself out of her imprint, hopping up onto her feet an instant later. "He asked for it," Trunks replied sourly, glaring up at Buu as he did so, just as the genocidal kid regenerated his head and glared right back. "I`d suggest you run away and let us cover for you, but there isn`t really anywhere to run," Zangya grumbled. "Call me crazy, but I don`t think he`s even looking at us..." Trunks commented uneasily. And he was right.   
  
"Pretty light..." Buu whispered to itself, finally saying something _without_ screaming, instead simply staring into the distance, ignoring the glittering energy rising off of the ground, out of the trees, grass and water and instead, focusing on the area it was accumilating in. "**_I HATE PRETTY THINGS!!!_**"   
  
It was a nice silence while it lasted...   
  
  
With a swift pop as air was jumbled aside to make way for their arrival, Bob, Shibito and Dende all materialized on New Namek, hitting the target mark perfectly and landing a few yards in front of a village that just _happened_ to be the gathering point for eight elders, seven of whom were holding watermelon-sized orange balls with stars on them numbering from one to seven, surrounded by a number of Nameks, workers, healers and warriors alike, with the eighth elder standing in front of the lot, resting on a cane with a wide, crooked little smile.   
  
"We knew ahead of time," Muuri stated to the enthusiasm of the three gods who had just appeared in front of him. _"King Kaio, we`ve made it! What wishes should we make?"_ Dende asked in a hurry, much to the bemusement of the old Kaioshin while Shibito was just glad to have made it in one piece, though he certainly wasn`t staying for long.   
  
_ "Bring back the Earth`s solar system for one,"_ King Kaio ordered. _"And then revive everyone who has died since the Tenkaichi Budoukai, good guys only,"_ Dende finished, though King Kaio promptly corrected him. _"Good **people** only, Dende. Don`t want a planet with only half of it`s population and all of them men, do you? I know you Nameks are asexual but come on kid, that`s just mean,"_ the Kaio chastised. "... Whoops," Dende said with a sideways glance, spotting Shibito moving a little away from himself and Bob.   
  
"And where do you think you`re going?" The elder Kaioshin asked his young superior. "There`s a fight on my home planet, and I have been complacent from doing my part in it for _far_ too long," Shibito replied sternly, vanishing with a gasp of air as the local atmosphere rushed into the vacuum he had left behind. Bob only smirked. "... I should have known," he said with a shake of the head before glancing back to Dende. "Shall we do this?" He asked as the seven lower elders set the Dragonballs into place. "Yes," Dende replied, hoping he remembered the proper summons for Porunga.   
  
_ The more you say   
  
_ "_**I!**_"   
  
Trunks gasped as a knee found itself embedded in his stomach, flinging him for a looping fall into the side of a cliff.   
  
"**_HATE!_**"   
  
Goku screamed when a tail-backhand combination found it`s way into crashing across his face, throwing him hard into the ground with a cratering explosion of dust and dirt.   
  
"**_PRETTY!_**"   
  
Piccolo yelped in agony when one of his arms was literally ripped out of the socket and used to slug him into a nearby forest, leveling a significant portion of it in the process.   
  
"**_THINGS!!!_**"   
  
Zangya threw her arms into a block, shattering Piccolo`s severed arm into a disgusting slop-fest before Buu threw away what was left and extended a hand, letting off a high powered blast into the woman`s stomach and throwing her through the air at super sonic speeds, crashing into the water of a nearby lake and causing a small tidal wave to ripple across the other side as a result, while the woman herself continued down through the water, leaving a tunnel effect before crashing into the ground as the blast finally detonated, spilling an even larger tidal wave in the opposite direction of the first.   
  
_ The more I defy you   
  
_ Goten gulped hard at the sight before him, watching four of the strongest fighters alive wind up slapped down like nothing before Buu turned again to face him. Steeling himself quietly, the youngest son of Goku and ChiChi grit his teeth and leaned his head forward, eyes narrowed while his grip on the enlarging Spirit Bomb held firm, tightening to an extent.   
  
_ "Keep your mind clear,"_ King Kaio ordered. "You try that when chibi death has it`s beedy little eyes set on you," Goten retorted. _"Ah shyaddap, I`m dead too yanno..."_   
  
"You`re not helping," Goten muttered.   
  
"**_STOP WITH THE PRETTY LIGHTS AND DIE!!!_**"   
  
"... Doesn`t he have _anything_ to say that doesn`t involve '_**DIE**_?'" Goten asked dryly, ready to meet his end with such cynical sarcasm that even Zangya would be proud. With a roar, Buu rushed in, leaving behind a number of sonic booms in the process, closing the distance in a literal blur with one arm fully extend to land the killing blow, more than prepared to end the life of Son Goten.   
  
But it didn`t happen that way. Instead, Buu stopped short, mere inches short in fact.   
  
But not mere inches short of Goten.   
  
_ So get out of my face   
  
_ "You okay?" Hercule asked, keeping his eyes winced shut as the wind from Buu`s punch caught him, almost throwing him back if not for the fact that he absolutely refused to budge even an inch. "Yeah," Goten replied with a thankful sigh, mentally noting the fact that for all of his lack of skill and strength - not to mention a reasonably decent hairstyle - Hercule definately had it when it counted, and right now, it counted a whole freakin` _**lot**_.   
  
"... _**GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!**_" Buu screeched, pulling it`s arm back to try again.   
  
"Go fuck yourself, Cherrybitch," Hercule replied angrily. "Cherrybitch?" Goten asked. "Yes! Cherrybitch! Look at `im, he looks like he`s cherry-flavored!" Hercule pointed out. "I`ll take your word for it..." Goten replied with a quirked up eyebrow.   
  
"**_I_**..." Buu paused with a blink and spoke again. "**_I!!!_**" Again, Buu paused. "**_I H--- YOU!!!_**" Buu tried to yell, finding himself caught off with a long 'H' and unable to finish the word 'hate,' let alone try to attack Hercule.   
  
Buu silently hovered back from the other two, leaving Goten, who stood atop a slightly elevated rock, and Hercule, who stood directly in front of him, both perplexed. And then Buu started gagging and coughing, screaming and raving, even smacking himself repeatedly like the lunatic that he was.   
  
"**_OUT! OUT! OUT OF MY HEAD! GET OUT!_**"   
  
As if he were a cat coughing up an oversized furball, Buu violently spat out a small dot-sized speck away from himself and the other two, though the dot didn`t stay small for long, promptly popping out to reveal a full-sized Fat Buu, who tumbled unconciously through the air for several seconds and then rolled along to a complete stop next to Videl.   
  
"Now, where were we?" Buu asked in a low, murderous tone, turning back to grin at the two gathered fighters.   
  
"... We`re screwed," Hercule said to himself with a plain nod. "Yep," Goten replied with the same, utterly casual tone of voice. "**_NOW DIE!!!_**" Buu screamed, again throwing it`s arm back to punch straight through Goten and Hercule and again being halted dead in it`s tracks as an ordinarily-sized hand, colored an exceptionally pale tone of purple caught his fist in the middle of the attack, precursing even the pop of air rushing out of the way as Shibito appeared.   
  
"I don`t think so," the Dai Kaioshin growled sternly, much to the enthusiasm of the two people who`s lives he had just spared by default.   
  
_ You cannot stop us  
You cannot bring us down  
Never give up  
We go on and on   
  
_ "**_I HATE YOU! LET GO OF M_**-" "**_SHUT THE HELL UP FOR ONCE, YOU THRICE DAMNED BRAT!!!_**" Shibito interrupted, promptly yanking Buu into a backhand that caught him off gaurd, sending the runt flying right into the low atmosphere. "No good, my foot," the new overseer of the universe growled in annoyance.   
  
_ You'll never break us  
Never bring us down  
We are alive!   
  
_ "Are you two alright?" Shibito asked. "Yeah," both answered at the same time. "Good," Shibito replied, cracking his neck to either side. "I`m going to try and help the others stall him, Hercule, you stay here and keep out of the way," the Dai Kaioshin ordered. "But..." Shibito cut him off. "No buts. As of right now, Buu has no further inabilities in attacking you, your only real use is as cannon fodder and we can`t afford wasting the effort to use you like that," the new god explained soberly. Hercule winced as a result, dryly sitting himself down and leaning against Goten`s rock, holding a hand up and knowingly giving up what power he actually had.   
  
"G`luck," the former champion mumbled. Goten gave a nod and Shibito stretched his arms grimly, promptly exploding off of the ground with a loud yell.   
  
"Ah don`t feel too bad, Herc, you did more good than Vegeta at least," Goten pointed out at the sulking man in front of him.   
  
  
While on Kaioshin-kai, all Hell was probably on the verge of breaking loose, on New Namek, a dragon god older than most civilizations and more powerful than a good number of the old gods themselves was being reborn for one of the many times in it`s ancient lifetime. Nobody actually knew how old Porunga was, everybody knew he was transitory though, not bound to the laws that forced Shenlong to die and Shenron to be born when the Piccolos Anglou and Daimou Junior absorbed each other and Dende become Kami, but as eternal as it`s namesake, which translated into a dozen meanings in Namekian, the most commonly used being the equivelent of Dragon God of Love while the oldest came off roughly as Eternal Father.   
  
The sky had become an abnormal black, the clouds had turned a sharply beautiful mixture of silver and gold and the land for miles around was darkened with a golden outline, the same being said for everyone who was near the summoning point as several dozen of the four hundred or so Nameks present(they`d had something of a population boom after Muuri had taken control) yelped in shock at the sheer size and strength of the dragon, tangible even to ones who had no sense of ki detection at all.   
  
"I see you broke the rules a bit, eh Porunga?" Bob asked mundanely in recognition. **"GREETINGS, BOB, LONG TIME NO SEE,"** the ancient dragon greeted in a slightly more pleasant tone. "You two know each other?" Muuri asked in surprise. "Of course we do, the ties between the Nameks and the Gods were much closer back when I was still around. Look it up sometime if you still have the records, it`s a really long story so..."   
  
"I`ll take your word for it," Muuri replied.   
  
** "WHAT CAN I DO FOR YOU, BOB?"** Porunga asked, voice echoing into the upper atmosphere.   
  
"Not me, him!" The elder god replied, motioning to Dende with his thumb. **"AH... DENDE! YOU`VE GROWN A BIT,"** the dragon exclaimed, still remembering the frightened Namekian boy that had so bravely challenged him the first time by making three wishes over a decade ago. "Nice to see you too Porunga! Sorry I can`t chat but I have a few urgent wishes here!" Dende replied, quietly praying in the back of his mind that he didn`t somehow offend the huge creature.   
  
** "NAME THEM, AND THEY SHALL BE DONE,"** Porunga replied, crossing his enormous arms over his chest. "Right... Uh... **_HEY KING KAIO!!!_**" Dende shouted out.   
  
_ "What?! No need to scream, kid, jeez..."   
  
_ "What were the wishes you wanted us to make?"   
  
_ "Ah... Right, okay, first things first: Restore the Earth and the surrounding part of it`s galaxy,"_ King Kaio answered. "... Holy crap, Buu blew up a chunk of the galaxy?!"   
  
"It was only a few dozen lightyears Dende, nothing major," Bob replied. "Just make the wish," he ordered. "Right..."   
  
"**_BRING BACK THE EARTH, IT`S SOLAR SYSTEM AND THE OTHER SYSTEMS DESTROYED BY MAJIN BUU!!!_**" Dende yelled, knowing he had to scream for the dragon to even pay attention to a wish.   
  
** "IT SHALL BE DONE."   
  
  
** "**_DIE!!!_**" Buu screamed.   
  
"**_SHOVE IT OUT YOUR PIE HOLE, RUNT!_**" Shibito replied with an uncharacteristic lack of charm, manners or care, dodging back and narrowly avoiding one of the demons angry kicks, then dodging forward through a punch and roughly elbowing the little runt in the forehead, knocking Buu back several inches before suddenly jumping back and throwing off a number of medium powered ki blasts at the demon, who ran beneath them and came to a perfect stop several hundred feet out of the way, and before Shibito had even realized it -   
  
"**_AND NOW I KILL YOU!!!_**"   
  
- Buu had whipped him across the back with it`s tail from dozens of feet below, shattering open the back of his heavy longcoat and cutting through the soft material of his shirt, leaving a deep gash along the god`s back before shortening back down to it`s normal lengths. By the time the new god had finished screaming in pain, Buu was perched menacingly atop his right shoulder.   
  
"**_DIE FOR BUU!!!_**" It screamed, winding up and moving to backhand the Dai Kaioshin across the face, only to find it`s strike blocked by Shibito`s forearms, blocking out the impact but causing the force to carry to god into a backflip to the ground, kicking up a pair of trenches from his feet and another ten with his fingers, stopping on all fours a second later.   
  
"I survived you the first time and I`ll survive you again," Shibito growled, righting himself and jumping out of the trenches before hurling another blast at Buu, who simply belched at it and diffused it on stink alone.   
  
"**_NOW DIE!!!_**" Buu screamed again, hurtling down at a furious rate only to stop, zoom straight down in front of Shibito and rip off one of his own arms, flinging it at the Dai Kaioshin and smacking him roughly across the face. The blood of a god streaked into the air and Shibito fell onto his back, forehead busted open and nose likely broken, but he threw himself back up despite it and charged forward, tackling the genocidal demon brat while it sought to snap it`s arm back into place, then slinging Buu over his shoulder and slamming him right back down in a classical move resembling the slams of Greek wrestling, albeit a good bit more stylish and packed with actual ki, which detonated the entire area within fifty feet of the two old enemies as a result.   
  
A few seconds passed...   
  
Then Shibito went flying out of the crater, chin bloodied from a dozen or so strikes, a noticable burn mark across the right side of his chest as the god spun back into control of his own ascent, falling back to his feet and landing with a great deal more balance than his predaccessor ever would have, launching forward while Buu erupted in a blur out of the crater, catching the new overseer of the universe off gaurd with a solid knee into the gut, followed up by an elbow or three into the back of the head.   
  
Shibito uneasily staggered sideways, muttering curses to himself before backflipping out of the way of Buu`s extending arm, which whipped a trench into the ground and retracted it in an instant, tail suddenly gaining the appearance of a spiked whip as it lashed out. Shibito jumped the first attack, ducked the second and blocked the third with the force of his kiai alone, screaming the appendage back in Buu`s direction as it lost it`s spikes, only to lunge forward again and catch Shibito unprepared.   
  
"**_SHIT!_**" The new god screamed, Buu`s head tail stabbing hard through his side and right out of the corresponding spot of his lower back, withdrawing an instant later while Buu jumped forward, smashing both knees into Shibito`s throat and then grabbing the god by his hair, decking him repeatedly until his face had vanished into one big bloody bruise.   
  
"**_THE GOD FAILED! I KILLED HIM!!!_**" Buu merrily screamed, even though the Fusion was quite alive, just unconcious. Not to mention probably well on his way to really dying at this rate, but still.   
  
Almost lazily, Buu threw Shibito`s comatose form aside, beaning the Dai Kaioshin right into what was left of the forest and leveling it, but he`d bought enough time for Zangya and Piccolo to recover. Trunks was out cold, Goku was probably just coming too, but the two mortal rivals-in-sarcasm were up and about, a little weaker but nowhere near as weakened from their injuries as Trunks, Goten and Goku were from not being able to go Super Saiyan or beyond.   
  
"**_MORE OF YOU?! I HATE YOU ALL! WHY DON`T YOU JUST DIE ALREADY?!_**" Buu screamed annoyedly.   
  
"Because we`re like cockroaches from Hell," Zangya retorted with a smirk. "And the infestation hasn`t even gotten started yet," Piccolo added sternly, though he lacked the expression that the smaller, currently-stronger fighter had at the moment.   
  
_ All my will  
All my strength  
Rip it out  
Start again   
  
****_ "YOUR FIRST WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED, NAME YOUR SECOND WISH," Porunga ordered, looking a bit paler after expending so much effort to reverse the effects of a blast so powerful it had wiped out almost two or three dozen solar systems, not including the random planets it had annihilated along the way.   
  
"Well?" Dende asked.   
  
_ "Bring back **everyone** who has died since the Tenkaichi Budoukai, excluding the evil ones,"_ King Kaio answered. "Here I go..."   
  
"**_BRING BACK EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING THAT HAS DIED SINCE THE LAST TENKAICHI BUDOUKAI, EXCEPT THE EVIL ONES!!!_**" Dende requested loudly, feeling the air drain out of his lungs just trying to scream up at the enormous creature that literally towered over him.   
  
** "BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES, THIS ONE WILL TAKE A WHILE..."   
  
**  
Piccolo and Zangya were fighting desperately, there was nothing else to say about it. Bravery was defiance against fear, in odds that you knew you stood a sliver of hope of winning. Desperation was fighting when you knew you probably wouldn`t, and it was also something that brought about far less legends and myths, mainly due to the fact that desperation usually didn`t pay off.   
  
This was a situation epitomized by desperation, both of them knew they didn`t stand a chance. Zangya had used her gems and her power had doubled because of it, but she still wasn`t doing much better than Piccolo, who was pulling every single ounce of technique he had to bear out of nowhere, and both were already on their last legs as it was.   
  
At least they were, then Buu swept them both off of their feet and decked them, sending the two warriors crashing into the dirt with a number of hard impacts, bouncing up and narrowly avoiding contact with the Spirit Bomb, which was still growing from the power that Kaioshin-kai was willing to give up.   
  
"This isn`t gonna work, Piccolo," Zangya muttered with an odd little smirk, wiping the blood from around her mouth with the back of a gloved hand and walking forward gingerly. "I know, but what`s the fun in doing nothing?" Piccolo asked with an equally strange smirk as the pair blasted off of the ground at Majin Buu, attacking with styles that mirrored each other. Piccolo put in every ounce of force he could, foregoing the normal style of technique first, while Zangya pulled her punches, causing Buu to temporarily focus more on Piccolo for short spurts of time, which left him wide open whenever Zangya let loose.   
  
It was a matter of strategy and skill versus unlimited stamina, insanity and the power to back it all up, and despite their initial advantage, Piccolo and Zangya were rapidly losing ground to Buu, even though the demon didn`t take a step forward, instead stretching his arms out to compensate for each step the two made, then warping his fingers until each was operating like a thin arm, whipping away incoming strikes and leaving the two wide open for his tail, which extended out and grabbed Piccolo by the neck, slinging the Namek face first into the ground behind Buu.   
  
Against an onslaught from ten directions at once, even a powered up, envoked Zangya faltered, promptly being reduced to a bloodied mess after several seconds before Buu literally joined his hands into a clamping mechanism of some sort and threw the woman with every ounce of force he could muster, jumping up and flipping forward into the process so that Zangya slammed into Piccolo as he got to his feet, throwing both into a violent series of bounces and skids, leaving the two of them unconcious in the cratered side of a cliff that probably wasn`t meant to be there at the start of the battle, almost a mile away.   
  
That meant it was down to Buu, Hercule and Goten. Goku was still trying to get to his feet, Trunks was still out like a light, Videl wasn`t moving yet, Zangya and Piccolo had just gone down and Vegeta was crippled below the waist, even if he had begun to regain conciousness by now.   
  
Things were looking pretty grim.   
  
"... Yanno..."   
  
"Just don`t say anything," Goten ordered dryly, shaking his head and speaking up a few seconds later. "Move out of the way Hercule, he`s going to attack me first," the boy stated.   
  
"... Right," the former Yuuichirou replied, stepping out of the way reluctantly and leaving Buu with a straight path at the boy who had started the entire fight by defying him.   
  
"**_COME AND GET ME, PUNK ASS!!!_**" Goten screamed angrily. "**_I`LL KILL YOU!!!_**" Buu replied with a roar, launching forward and covering the distance to Goten in under a thousandth of a second, tackling the boy from where he stood and literally ripping him away from the Spirit Bomb. Goten screamed and went flying into a rolling tumble with Buu, leaving the attack to start losing power.   
  
_ "SOMEONE DO SOMETHING! WE`VE COME WAY TOO FAR NOW TO BE STOPPED LIKE THIS!!!"_ King Kaio screamed irately.   
  
In an instant, Hercule knew what he had to do.   
  
_ "I hope this doesn`t fry me,"_ the former champion thought resolutely, bending down and launching himself up off of the ground, sinking his fingers into the still-large, but not quite as huge ball of energy that the boy had been building, literally going flying for several seconds as the ball spun out, still rotating from the momentum of Goten being ripped away, but Hercule wasn`t letting go anytime soon, clawing into the Spirit Bomb as best he could and kicking his legs back against it`s rotation, eventually slowing it down to the extent that it`s last flip brought his legs to scrape harshly across the top of the rock, breaking down it`s movement until Hercule stood up straight, holding down what felt like a balloon that was begging to be let loose.   
  
"... Well, I`ll be damned," the former champion said to himself with a nervously triumphant smile, looking up from the ground to see Goten being battered all over the place by Majin Buu.   
  
"_**YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE YOU LITTLE SNOT NOSED SON OF A BITCH!**_" Hercule screamed angrily, voice bellowing through the surrounding area.   
  
_ "**DON`T THROW IT YET!!!**"_ King Kaio ordered loudly.   
  
"**_I`LL KILL YOU!!!_**" Buu howled, flinging the banged up Goten out of the way with a grin. The boy though, who`s overshirt was now virtually gone, his long sleeved shirt beneath it ripped and torn in several places, a little bloody here and there as well, wasn`t exactly giving up easily, trying to get back to his feet even with a black eye and a dozen cuts across his face, even bleeding from the nose and mouth.   
  
"Don`t go yet, _the party hasn`t even gotten started_!" Goten shouted, screaming in a rage as that crimson aura shot up off of the ground, his eyes shifting to the same color as Zangya`s skin at the moment, hair rising up like a red torch in the process while the boy sprang back up, launching himself at Buu from behind.   
  
Too little too late though, Buu was already making a byline for Hercule, screaming out a death threat every step of the way.   
  
_ You cannot stop us  
You cannot bring us down  
Never give up  
We go on and on  
  
_ "_**YOU LEAVE MISTER SATAN ALONE YOU LITTLE BULLY!!!**_"   
  
_ You'll never break us  
Never bring us down  
We are alive!   
  
_ "Buu!" Hercule shouted ecstatically as a resounding crack echoed across the battlefield. Kid Buu stopped in his tracks as Fat Buu appeared again, one fist jammed into it`s bratty counterpart`s cheek, both feet rooted firmly into the ground and a fairly angry expression dotting the normally overly cheerful look of the overweight demon-turned posterchild for Jenny Craig`s 'Savior of the Eleventh Hour' diet plan. There was a brief gurgle from Kid Buu as Fat Buu ground his gloved fist further into the cheek of his smaller counterpart, withdrawing it a second later and angrily watching the smaller Buu stagger away sideways.   
  
"_**I HATE YOU!!!**_" Both Buus screamed at each other in the same moment, promptly erupting into a shouting match. "_**STOP COPYING ME!**_" They shouted in unison. "_**STOP BEING MEAN!**_" They shouted again before finally launching at each other in a flurry of punches and kicks.   
  
  
** "YOUR SECOND WISH HAS BEEN GRANTED. NAME YOUR THIRD AND FINAL WISH,"** Porunga ordered as a festive shout let loose from the old Kaioshin, just as his halo vanished. He didn`t notice that though, he was just glad to see that they were on the verge of grasping victory from the jaws of defeat, but Dende didn`t bother with a celebratory chant, he knew what he wanted already.   
  
"**_BRING SON GOHAN TO KAIOSHIN-KAI!!!_**"   
  
** "IT CANNOT BE DONE,"** Porunga replied.   
  
"**_WHAT?!_**" Dende and Bob both shrieked. **"I CANNOT FIND HIM. NAME YOUR THIRD WISH,"** Porunga bellowed. "Shit," Dende growled repeatedly. "Okay... Uhm... Shit, shit, shit," the young god muttered, trying to think of something to wish for and trying to think of it fast.   
  
_ "Allow me to give you the suggestion,"_ King Kaio answered the young Kami`s distress with a slight chuckle. _"Wish that all of the Earthlings... Hell, wish that every single living being within fifty lightyears all around the Earth can watch the battle take place, I can handle everything from there,"_ King Kaio ordered.   
  
"Alright... **_I WISH THAT EVERY LIVING BEING WITHIN FIFTY LIGHTYEARS IN ALL DIRECTIONS OF THE PLANET EARTH SEE THE BATTLE TAKE PLACE!_**"   
  
** "IT SHALL BE DONE! FAREWELL!!!"   
  
** With that, Porunga vanished.   
  
  
King Kaio cracked his knuckles and shook his head from side to side several times, shaking out a bit of the rust so to speak, and then reaching out with every ounce of willpower he could muster before telepathically going to work. It wasn`t going to be an easy task, but he would do it even if it killed him again all the same.   
  
_ "People of the galaxy, hear my voice! I am King Kaio..."   
  
_ Faster and faster, the two Buus, so very different despite their similarities, battled across the ground in front of Hercule, soon joined by the fiery eyed boy who had gained power when he shouldn`t have and put it to use in a way most people would`ve thought a waste of energy.   
  
_ "What you see before you is a battle to determine the fate of the entire universe. Your eyes are not deceiving you, there are two Majin Buus, and yes, that is Son Goten fighting alongside one of them. What`s going on now is a battle to determine your own futures, whether or not you`ll have children and whether or not you`ll be able to tell them what`s happening here today..."   
  
"What the heck is he doin`?"_ Hercule thought, watching as Kaioshin-kai stopped giving energy all together, leaving him to hold the only partially-regrown ball of ki above his head, utterly useless at it`s current level of strength.   
  
_ "Circumstance is forcing you to side with Son and the Fat Buu, the one who started the genocide of you all - **BUT** he is good, he`s a friend of Mister Satan himself so he can`t be anything **but** good anymore, and right now they all need you. These three fighters are all that stands between the universe and it`s own annihilation."  
  
_ "... I get it," Hercule whispered to himself with a gulp, cracking his neck from side to side and getting ready to put on the show of his life.   
  
_ "What Hercule needs, is for you to help him. Put your hands to the sky, I know it`ll sting at first, and you`ll feel tired soon after, but don`t worry about that..."   
  
_ "**_JUST GIVE UP YOUR ENERGY SO WE CAN WIN!_** This is more important than anything you`ve ever done before or will do again, you **_HAVE_** to help me! _**I NEED YOU!!!**_" Hercule screamed, knowing it would be sent to the people because of a wild guess about just exactly what the third wish had been. "This is the one time I can`t do it without you people! Goten an` the Good Buu won`t be able to hold out much longer, so put your hands in the air and get to helpin` me out here!" Hercule shouted, maintaining the look of a champion the entire time.   
  
_ The wind blows   
  
_ The results...   
  
_ I'll lean into the wind   
  
_ To say the least...   
  
_ My angle grows   
  
_ Were spectacular.   
  
_ I'll use it to win   
  
_ "**_THAT`S WHAT I`M TALKIN` ABOUT!_**" Hercule shouted with a smile as Goten and Buu both faltered back, the younger of the two finally giving out from a dozen or more punches into the gut and being used as a baseball bat to send both he, and the larger Buu flying back, landing with a thunderous shockwave off in the distance as Kid Buu gingerly snapped his neck to either side and leered over at Hercule, unimpressed or perhaps too crazy to notice that the Spirit Bomb was rapidly starting to gain mass - and power.   
  
_ The more you say  
The more I defy you  
So get out of my way   
  
_ "**_WE`VE HAD ENOUGH O` YOU, MAJIN BUU!_**" Hercule screamed, trying to smooth talk his way into buying a little more time. Even though he couldn`t sense ki even half as well as most normal people could, he was more than adequate enough to know the attack wasn`t powerful enough.   
  
Yet. It was practically gaining strength on it`s own at an incredible rate as the seconds passed by.   
  
"**_I`LL KILL YOU!!!_**" Buu screeched angrily, again crouching down and making ready to go on the attack.   
  
_ Can you leave it all behind?  
Can you leave it all behind?  
Cause you can't go back  
You can't go back  
  
_ "**_THE HELL YOU WILL!_**" A familiar voice shouted as a pair of ivory-toned boots crashed into Buu`s forehead. "I think you forgot someone, don`t you?!" Vegeta asked angrily, his halo now gone, teeth grit defiantly as he went on the attack, having gained back his entire energy reserves as a result of being reincarnated. Buu faltered back under this new onslaught, meeting punches and kicks with vulnerability and a lack of defense, promptly finding himself battered six ways to Sunday and right back to the starting point by the vengeful Saiyan Prince, who rapidly dodged the clumsy counter attack that the demon tried, swinging around and kicking him hard across the cheek.   
  
Buu finally regained his senses after several seconds more, dodging back from the Prince and then outright backpedalling away in a hurry, regenerating a bit more with each step in the process. "Going somewhere?" Vegeta asked with a smirk, suddenly throwing his hands forward.   
  
"**_FINAL FLASH!!!_**"   
  
Buu was hard pressed to stretch out of the way of the attack, which flashed off into the outer atmosphere of Kaioshin-kai before eventually slamming through Hell`s ceiling and somehow - probably by an ironic coincidence alone - slamming into King Kold, just as King Vegeta the Fifty-Fourth kicked him into the sky, throwing the huge Aisu back down into the pits of Hell.   
  
"**_I`LL KILL YOU!!!_**" Buu threatened for the umpteenth time, lunging forward and dodging through a hail of ki blasts to roughly punch Vegeta across the jaw, throwing the Prince into the air before again grabbing him by one leg and slinging him out of the way, then firing off a lethal beam of ki to seal the deal, detonating the entire area that Vegeta had landed in into a sub-nuclear dome-type explosion, throwing off a shockwave into the lower atmosphere of the ancient planet before again turning to Hercule.   
  
"Need more energy," the former champ muttered, hoping the people would hear it and not Buu. Narrowing his eyes with a snort, Hercule spread his legs into a fighting stance but kept his hands locked firmly to the Spirit Bomb, cracking his jaw readily and glaring.   
  
"Come get me, you crazy little bastard!" He ordered sternly, putting his legs entirely forward and into a crouch. "I ain`t afraid o` you, the people ain`t afraid o` you, _**YOU CAN`T HURT ME AND YOU CAN`T HURT THEM!**_"   
  
"**_I HOPE YOU REALLY DIE THIS TIME!!!_**" Buu howled, launching forward once more. Hercule readied himself quickly, getting prepared to try and flip the Spirit Bomb and ride it in the process, which would allow him to dodge Buu at the cost of a bit of motion sickness if he could pull it off.   
  
As luck would have it, he didn`t need to.   
  
"**_KIENZAN!!!_**"   
  
_ You cannot stop us   
  
_ "Not again," Buu grumbled, coming to a complete stop as the disc of raw ki sliced through the air and into the ground in front of him, though it proved only a distraction at best as yet another familiar fighter literally dropped into the battlefield, rebounding off of the ground in front of Majin Buu and uppercutting him with the back of his hand, followed by a second all-too-familiar fighter, who promptly kicked Buu in the chest after dropping in from above in a similar manner to the first.   
  
_ You cannot bring us down   
  
_ "Sorry we`re late for the party," Gohan excused, glancing over his shoulder with a smirk to the former Yuuichirou, who was smiling like an idiot in reply, especially when he failed to notice any sort of halo over the teen`s head.   
  
"You`re alive?!" Hercule asked enthusiastically. "Instant Transmission, the only way to travel with someone you`re going to **_KILL_** one day," Cell Junior interrupted with a sarcastic tone, lowering down into a fighting stance at the sight of the Spirit Bomb. "How much time do you need?" Gohan asked, watching as Buu emerged again from the pile of rubble he had been sent crashing into by the blue carapaced warrior.   
  
_ Never give up   
  
_ "I`d say two minutes at this rate," Hercule replied with a stern nod, even as the Spirit Bomb continued gaining size and strength by the second.   
  
_ We go on and on   
  
_ "Then you`ll have your two minutes," Cell Junior promptly stated. "Come on Spike, let`s save the universe," he ordered, rocketing off the ground at Majin Buu, the aura of the Kaio Ken rapidly erupting around him, almost the instant he had started flying. "Right behind ya, Blubie," Gohan replied, launching after Cell at the same speed.   
  
_ You'll never break us   
  
_ Buu regarded them angrily, getting to it`s feet with a growl as the two fighters came rushing towards it.   
  
Seconds passed.   
  
_ Never bring us down   
  
_ "**_I HATE YOU!!!_**" Buu screamed at the two fighters, rocketing towards them in a blast of movement, irately dodging through a number of blasts as Gohan outpaced Cell, landing with a skid to make the first impacts on Buu since the two had arrived, catching the little demon off gaurd with a number of punches, ending with a kick that left Buu wide open to Cell.   
  
_ We are alive!   
  
"Looks like we`re in this battle after all,"_ Hercule mused, ignorant to the fact that Videl, now alive once again, though the bleeding had left her with a visible scar across her cheek while she was unconcious, was getting up.   
  
There was a narrow chance for victory alright, and it was becoming more and more dramatic with each passing second.   
  
_

End Part Thirty-Five  
  


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_ **Author`s Note:** I lied :p And who knew that Hercule was pure of heart and could wield a Spirit Bomb, eh? *Cackles and raises Hercule Satan banner.*  
  
**CysticLOL17:** So you were right, but I was **trying** to keep it a nice surprise :P A tip to ya: If you figure something out in a story, _don`t_ spoil it for others in a review, the author probably wanted to make it a surprise. Hopefully I managed to keep it a surprise by exagerating rumors of their mutual demise(heh heh), but still. And no, I`m not mad here, just keep that in mind, yanno?  
  
**cobra:** Guess that answered your question >_>;  
  
**Professor Authordude:** Sheesh, ya`d think I never listen to my reviewers or anything, huh?  
  
**W. V. F.:** This`ll take a bit to explain given all the questions, but ah well...  
  
1: Not enough time. Plus they were at the back of a line of well over a million people, that kinda takes a while to get to the front of, ya know?  
2: *Points up.*  
3: For one, they couldn`t find him. For two, even Instant Transmission tends to take a WHILE when dealing with the kind of distances and barriers in place between Kaioshin-kai and the rest of existence.  
4: Videl never technically **learned** how to use magics and such, it just comes to her when she needs it. You can probably trace it all down to when she first got the amulet that had the remains of her/Hotaru`s soul in it back in Opaque Portents.  
5: Actually, an already dead Aisu in Hell was killed earlier in the story. I think the body either ceases to exist or quickly decays while the soul will either move on and be reincarnated, or someone(ala Damion) will grab it and use it for whatever purpose he had in mind.  
6: Actually, it`s possible for anyone to kill the dead - **if** they have a body. Just have to find something with the raw power to destroy the body  
A: Bulma turned into a cloud because she(like Oolong) never directly did anything enough to warrant keeping their bodies, at least in Enma`s eyes. Oolong technically saved the world once but apparently with all the paperwork the office demons have, it was overlooked. As for Bulma... It can be argued that she never directly did anything to save the world/galaxy/universe. Sure, she built things, but they never tended to influence many people, or they weren`t used properly. Sure, she gave birth to Trunks, but that wasn`t direct and being Vegeta`s common law wife doesn`t count for very much.  
B: *Points up.*  
  
Gohan`s back, as is Cell, I know the workings of the Spirit Bomb but that doesn`t mean I`m not going to enjoy screwing around with it >_> Humor = good, battle banter with wit = better. And yes, Zangya does look something like what you could guess a female Namek **might** look like. She`s technically twice as big as in her normal state, her skin is lime green and she has semi-elfish ears. Nameks are generally tall, green and have elf ears. Pretty crude comparison, and no, Zangya **isn`t** a female Namek. Merry Christmas!  
  
**Silver:** Guess Time decided to delay the process a bit since she was needed. Either that or you can argue that she would have been instantly reincarnated **if** she had made it to the check-in station. In her past life as Celipa, it`s likely that she pissed too many people off to warrant a quick reincarnation, so there you have it. And no, that`d just be **too** tragic :P I`m writing an action story after all, the romance between Gohan and Videl is only a relatively small-but-important part to the main plot.  
  
**diamondgirl:** Yep yep. And also: Videl`s going to be keeping that scar. Permanently. If you want, I`ll explain it in the next author`s note. *Passifies the threats of torture by getting diamond a life-sized RC flying saucer. Including planetary death ray.*  
  
**yume:** Sounds pretty cool :D Link me to it if you get a site or anything for it.  
  
**anonymous:** *Ears start bleeding.* x_x; No need to stretch the review section so that people have to scroll sideways... That IS kind of annoying, you know. As for Gohan going SSJ or SSJ2 while Mystic... His body would literally give out. That`s simply too much power for him to be wielding at once without training up to where he can tolerate it without exploding(which would probably knock out a visible chunk of whatever unfortunate galaxy he`s in at the time). As it stands, Gohan`s stuck in his normal-ish Mystic form, he doesn`t need SSJ or SSJ2 since he has it.  
  
Phew... That took longer than I expected it would :P But that`s all for now fo-  
  
_Gohan:_ *Strangles Sh33p with the fake halo he had to wear.*  
  
*Gag, choke, sputter.* -lks, Sh33p out and see ya next time!  
  
_Gohan:_ NO YOU WON`T!!! *Blasts Sh33p repeatedly.*  
  
x_x Happy holidays!  
  



	37. My Sacrifice

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  
**

Hybrid Theory: Generations

** _  
My Sacrifice   
  
  
  
_ Shockwaves rang out across the once-pristine landscape around where Hercule Satan stood, infrequently ending with shockwaves colliding together and obliterating one another as the fighting that had taken possession of the ancient world of Kaioshin-kai continued at a frenzied pace. It was an almost even fight too, despite advantages for one side in numbers, intelligence and teamwork, it was still an almost even fight, tipped in the favor of the lone demon who so perfectly epitomized the word 'genocide' even when he was standing still.   
  
It was the battle of a lifetime, and on top of that, it was the grand finale - regardless of the outcome - of a singular day of abstract chaos spreading across the planet known as Earth and inadvertently tearing apart a noticable chunk of the planet`s home galaxy, erasing dozens upon dozens of species, ranging from single celled life forms to parts of space faring empires - only to bring them all back later on in that same day, but now it was all coming to a head.   
  
There was going to be no going back, no surrender, no retreat and no compromise. Both sides were pulling out all the stops and it was an unbelievable sight to behold as a result, with the one side, composed of a small group of friends and family, along with a few enemies on the side, with the ancient demon known as Majin Buu on the other.   
  
"**_TAIYOKEN!_**"   
  
A flare of light, blinding in it`s intensity, lit up out of a crater.   
  
"**_DIE!_**"   
  
Another flare of light, this one pink and no where near as bright, flashed out of the sky and slammed into a tall, blue warrior, blasting him down further into the same crater he had just stood up in.   
  
"**_MASENKO-HA!_**"   
  
A bolt of orange, a pinkish blur and a resounding impact as Buu collided with Son Gohan high above the ground, meeting only a boot into the chin from the teenaged prodigy before flying back into the same beam he had just dodged away from.   
  
"**_SUPER KAIO KEN!_**"   
  
A ball of reddish flame shot out of the ground, striking Buu solidly across the back of the head and sending him rocketing forward into a knee to the face, though the runt merely grabbed Gohan`s leg and used it to sling the youth around, batting Cell Junior away with a vicious impact before throwing Gohan towards the ground, following after him with a roar.   
  
Gohan flipped himself upright, landing with a shock and a groan from the tortured ground beneath his feet before flipping over sideways out of the demon`s path, allowing Buu`s right fist to slam into the ground with a loud crash, leaving the force of impact to continue downward for several dozen feet at least. By the time it had stopped though, Buu and Gohan were already locking wits and fists, trading punches at a furious rate and finding each other more than an even match.   
  
And then Buu`s ki suddenly skyrocketed for a few seconds, tearing the advantage free in the evenly split battle, forcing Gohan onto the defensive brutally with a number of kicks and punches so quickly that even the demi-saiyan teenager had to work at spotting and stopping the incoming attacks.   
  
"**_I HATE YOU!_**" Buu screamed. "The feeling`s mutual!" Gohan replied, only to have his next attempt at insulting Buu cut off rather painfully by a knee into his chin, throwing him up into the air before again grabbing his ankle and slinging him back down, just as Cell Junior appeared in the distance, two fingers on each hand tapped to his forehead with a grin.   
  
"**_MAKANKOSAPPO!!!_**"   
  
In a blast of doubly corkscrewing energies, Cell brought his hands back down and clasped them together, firing off a single large beam, twice the size of a normal Makankosappo, with two corkscrewing side beams running around it counter to each other, all three beams slamming into Buu in unison before detonating an instant later.   
  
"How long do we have left?!" Cell demanded, watching as Buu erupted out of the smoke and charging up for another Kaio Ken.   
  
"A minute and a half!" Hercule shouted up at the two, still blaringly oblivious to who was getting up next to him. "Then let`s hope that minute and a half goes by quicker than it is right now," Gohan mumbled to himself, standing up uneasily after a few seconds and then blasting up off of the ground once again, just as Cell kickstarted his Kaio Ken attempt, only to be cut off in the midst of it by Buu`s right hand caving his nose into his brain.   
  
An elbow crashing into the chin sent Buu`s head rocking back, but his tail was already in action anyway, stabbing through Cell`s chest and barely missing the regenerative lump within before violently swinging the dazed fighter at his temporary ally, missing with each attack before Cell finally blasted free, tumbling down for several seconds as Gohan moved back in, battling Buu down towards the ground in a fast paced flurry of shockwave-causing punches and kicks.   
  
Faster and faster, the two dropped down, landing with a pair of sudden dust clouds only scant feet apart before striking out at one another a second time, each using only one arm and each making the same strikes at each other for several seconds before Buu coiled his arm around Gohan`s own like a snake, promptly swinging the teen into the ground, yanking him back up above his head and doing it again several more times.   
  
Then, like a bat out of Hell, Cell re-entered the fray once more, still bleeding since he had stopped himself short of a full regeneration to conserve power, but more than able to fight despite himself. Buu staggered forward, Cell attacked from behind, spouting off insults and curses by the truckload as he forced the little demon to try and fling Gohan at him in an annoyed attempt at getting Cell to halt, but it didn`t work. Instead, Gohan flashed by and Cell dodged out of the way, replying in kind with an angry kick across the face to Majin Buu before going into another of his 'I am the one to kill Son Gohan!' tirades.   
  
Again.   
  
With a hard, violent skid, Gohan carried along through the dirt, coming to a stop a few feet behind Hercule as a familiar weight landed on top of him from above.   
  
_ Hello my friend, we meet again  
It`s been a while, where should we begin   
  
_ "Well, you`re looking better," Gohan commented sarcastically as Videl groggily rolled onto her back, half-laying across his chest in the process. "... You could at least have the decency to actually die when a planet blows up, Gohan," Videl chided with a half-smile. "And actually give people what they want in a fight? Hah!"   
  
_ Feels like forever  
Within my heart are memories   
  
_ Gingerly leaning up to sit at the edge of the trench on a sore lower body, Videl watched as Gohan, almost lazily, hauled himself up to his feet, falling back over and sitting down a few seconds later. "Never thought we`d be sitting like _that_," Videl commented with a prodding smirk, though the result was little more than a shrug. Sure, the two had become a bit commited in the past hours but it was still rather unexpected that he`d take something so lightly.   
  
"I knew we would. Was just waitin` for ya to come around," Gohan said with a cryptic little smirk of his own before again standing up straight. "Now if you`ll excuse me..."   
  
"No, I won`t," Videl said, just as a fairly solid weight smacked against the back of Gohan`s head. "Ow!" The youth grumbled, turning around to see that Videl was propping herself up unsteadily on something he hadn`t seen in a good few years. "Finally started unlocking your full powers, eh?" Gohan asked knowingly. "When this is over, you`re either going to tell me what the hell you`re talking about or I`ll kill you," Videl grumbled, kicking out the tiredness from her legs and glancing out past her father at the fact that Cell Junior was presently fighting Kid Buu head on.   
  
And then she looked at her father again.   
  
And then she noticed the Spirit Bomb he was presently building up. By himself.   
  
"... I don`t even wanna know," Videl muttered dryly with a shake of the head. "Yeah, no comment here either," Gohan replied. There was a thunderous crack in the distance and Cell flew by, impacting a mountain some miles in the distance and causing it to literally collapse on itself before exploding back up in a blaze of fire and smoke, any debris being slagged and vaporized before it could get very far.   
  
"_Now_ can I go?" Gohan asked jokingly. "Sure but..."   
  
"But?"   
  
"One thing."   
  
"And that would be?" He asked.   
  
_ Of perfect love that you gave to me  
I remember   
  
_ "I love you," Videl stated plainly, planting a kiss on Gohan`s lips that would likely level an ordinary man twice his age in a second. Instead, he took on a grin so goofy it would make even Goku blink a few times, then sheepishly snickered to himself, placed a hand on the back of his head and spoke up a second later. "I love you too, Videl," he finally admitted after a second, fading serious once again. "Don`t go dying on me, got that?" Videl asked as Buu started to walk towards Hercule at a threatening pace. "Same goes for you, I`ve lost you enough as is," the other teen replied with audible annoyance before launching himself past Hercule, right at Buu on a direct course.   
  
Of course the former champion - and likely the world for that matter - had heard that, but he honestly didn`t mind. For once, there was actually something more pressing to deal with than the fact his daughter was actually in love with someone.   
  
_ When you are with me  
I`m free, I'm careless, I believe   
  
_ "Keep up the good job, Dad," Videl stated, flying past Hercule, Glaive held high to attack in the process. "Hey!" The former Kumada yelled, not exactly wanting Videl to literally throw her life away to try and help out in a battle.   
  
_ Above all the others we`ll fly  
This brings tears to my eyes  
My sacrifice  
  
"My baby`s all grown up..."_ Hercule thought whistfully, feeling the urge to sniffle but fighting it back. He still had to try and be convincing for the people to keep giving him power, every single ounce of it that they could throw at him for that matter.   
  
Buu immediately faltered back under the renewed assault from the demi-saiyan youth, throwing up blocks at random and managing to stop just shy of being hit but still being completely halted as far as trying to attack went. The two battled quickly but they didn`t battle alone, as was proven when a distinctly feminine hand clasped onto Gohan`s shoulder, a familiar spear-type weapon launching outward and slashing into Buu`s face, leaving open a wide gash as Videl sprang into the fighting, immediately dropping back and to the side to get out of the way. Gohan`s fist on the other hand, it found it`s mark an instant later, slamming hard into the open wound and driving straight through, bulging Buu`s head severely before the little demon regenerated, springing back by default from the two young fighters only to land in the middle of an area which promptly exploded.   
  
"**_DIDN`T THINK YOU WOULD KEEP ME DOWN THAT LONG, DID YOU?! EH?! DID YOU?!_**" Junior`s voice bellowed as he launched out of the rising cloud of smoke, burnt badly in several places but otherwise almost unharmed, the hole in his chest no gone completely as he descended at a furious rate, catching Buu off gaurd and crashing both feet into the little demon`s chest and kicking him right back into the blast before backflipping in front of the other two, snickering smugly.   
  
"Was wondering when you`d show back up," Gohan commented, lowering down into a fighting stance. "I`m too much of a fucking bastard to stay down, you should know that by now," Cell replied sardonically. "Cute, by the way," he said a moment later. "In that weird kind of way you find two animals dry humping each other on the Discovery Channel cute," he added. "Well, now I know why you hate him," Videl commented annoyedly. "Like you really had to wonder?" The other replied in the same tone.   
  
_ We`ve seen our share of ups and downs  
Oh, how quickly life can turn around  
In an instant  
  
_ "**_ALL OF YOU DIE!!!_**" Buu screamed, bursting forward in a flurry of movement to try and catch the three off gaurd, managing to smack Cell aside and deck Gohan in the stomach but missing with Videl, who dodged aside and stabbed the Glaive into him once again. "No thanks!" The girl yelled, just as a blast of purple flame shot out within Majin Buu, sending the demonic runt faltering back in pain, though he was exceptionally quick to recover, growling out before screaming again. The entire area promptly detonated as Gohan reached out an arm blindly, relying on ki and intuition to grasp Videl`s right hand and then shooting right up to outrace the blast, though Cell wasn`t quite as lucky. The blue warrior flew back, both forearms and all of either leg missing, most of his body charred black as well.   
  
The blast was abrupt and final, and by the time the two teens had stopped trying to outrun it, it had consumed all the way up to a few dozen yards short of Hercule and the Spirit Bomb, never quite hitting either target but definately knocking Cell out of the fight - and out of conciousness for that matter - for the duration.   
  
"How much longer?!" Gohan shouted. "Thirty seconds!" Hercule yelled up at both teens, desperately trying to pull in more energy, and desperately managing to succeed in the process, but only just barely.   
  
Buu blazed back out of the smoke though, catching Videl off gaurd with a hard knee to the midsection and sending her reeling back, though since she had managed to get her gaurd up a good deal better and unlock more of that strange power within, the force wasn`t lethal. If anything, Videl flew back for only a few hundred feet before stopping herself short of any impact, but the damage was done to Gohan, distracting him just so that Buu was able to attack repeatedly.   
  
For several seconds, Gohan was smacked around like a rag doll, the attack finally ending with a rather disgusting number of cracks as Buu threw an uncounted number of punches into his chest, then promptly kicked him in the face, sending the teen flying skyward in a blur, only to somehow catch himself a good distance away from Buu, hovering next to Videl uneasily, on hand covering the part of his shirt over his ribs, blood streaking down from where Buu had kicked him.   
  
With a sadistic grin, Buu lunged forward, intent on ending the battle permanently this time. He was going to kill them both, he was going to rip them limb from limb and then he was going to slaughter Hercule like he _should_ have done right from the beginning. Majin Buu was going to -   
  
"_**GET AWAY FROM MY SON!!!**_"   
  
- be split right in half at the middle by a Kienzan.   
  
_ It feels so good to reunite  
Within yourself and within your mind  
Let's find peace there  
  
_ Son Goku stood alone, hundreds of feet below, bloodied arm outstretched in an exhausted manner, one eye winced shut with blood leaking down over it, orange gi shirt hanging by one shoulder section and a Son Grin plastered across his face as he stood bravely, having just commited the last of his energy to one final attack that had paid off in spades. "I`m screwed," Goku said with genuine enthusiasm, still wearing that exhausted grin, along with countless minor and moderate injuries like a badge of honor as Majin Buu put himself back together and scowled deeply in contempt, suddenly lunging for Goku once again, only to be cut off all over again as a pudgy foot in a bright yellow boot smashed across the side of his head, throwing him back down into the ground while Fat Buu tumbled out of the skies, landing with a planet shaking thud as his weighty form smacked into the ground next to Goku.   
  
"That was the last I had left," the good Buu said with a tired smile, unable to even more after the damage inflicted on it earlier in the battle. "You used it good," Goku replied, still breathing hard.   
  
"**_WE`RE READY!!!_**" Hercule screamed loudly, much to the delight of billions of people, transcending every single line that could possibly seperate civilized races of any kind, from levels of sentience to raw strength to the language barrier, all of it came crumbling down.   
  
_ "**GO FOR IT!!!**"_ King Kaio roared.   
  
_ When you are with me   
  
_ "**_TIME FOR YOU TO GO TO HELL MAJIN BUU!!!_**" Hercule screamed, taking a step forward as Buu landed hard in front of him with a thunderous crash, pulling the Spirit Bomb along for the ride as the last bits of energy he needed came into play before throwing the massive attack at almost point blank, at least as point blank as one could hope to get while dealing with a ball of energy almost seven hundred feet wide in all directions, crashing it down on Kid Buu with a loud scream.   
  
_ I`m free, I`m careless, I believe   
  
"**KEEP PUSHING HERCULE! FLATTEN THE BASTARD!**"_ King Kaio shouted in an uncharacteristic rush, trying hard to provide the encouragement that the former champion was going to need to pound the attack right into the target as it hurtled forward, gently grinding across the surface of the planet and smacking into the genocidal demon as intended.   
  
But it didn`t work right, Buu grabbed the outer layer of energy and held it back, regardless of the consequences to himself, which were severely shown as his skin started burning away on contact with the attack. "**_I`LL KILL YOU!!!_**" Buu screamed over the roar of the Spirit Bomb, just as Hercule growled to himself.   
  
_ "What now?!"_ He asked.   
  
_ "How the hell should I know?!"_ King Kaio yelled back.   
  
_ Above all the others we'll fly   
  
_ The answer came in spectacular fashion as a ragged, bloodied Son Goten came flying in with a number of high speed flips before straightening himself up and smashing into the attack with every ounce of force he could muster, yelling out all the while as the crimson aura surrounding him began to fade a truly heavenly shade of blue, hair fading to a blue-tinged silver in the process and eyes gradually taking on the same changes. Kaioshin-kai rumbled and...   
  
_ This brings tears to my eyes   
  
_ "**_I TOLD YOU I WASN`T FINISHED WITH YOU YET!!!_**"   
  
_ `Cause when you are with me  
I`m free, I'm careless, I believe  
Above all the others we`ll fly  
This brings tears to my eyes  
My sacrifice  
  
_ Goten screamed out a war cry over the sound of the rushing ki of the Spirit Bomb, aura exploding up into a blast of an unearthly, heavenly blue light as the Spirit Bomb was literally forced down Buu`s throat at point blank. In an instant, the child demon was enveloped in the attack and an explosion like none that had ever been seen before shattered through the landscape of Kaioshin-kai, lacking actual force, moving dozens upon dozens of times faster than the speed of sound, maybe even close to moving faster than the speed of light, but definately making it`s presence known.   
  
The fighting had been fierce, it had been desperate and it had been climactically finished, ending with the destruction of Majin Buu and the end of a five million year long reign of paranoia, terror, death and destruction, leaving only nature and the pure of heart standing by the end of the blast.   
  
_ I just want to say hello again   
  
_ Across the sector of the galaxy that Buu had so callously annihilated, cheering broke out, mortal enemies became temporary friends and celebrations erupted amidst what had shortly been an emptied void of nothingness, and on Kaioshin-kai, only a finalized silence could be heard, deafening in it`s intensity.   
  
And then, the sounds of raucous laughter came charging out of the quiet. It was over.   
  
It was finally over.   
  
"That..." Gohan gasped as he and Videl set down, the smaller of the two supporting the larger. "Was utterly insane," Videl finished for him, breathing hard herself and glancing out as the battered combatants who had fought so hard rose out of wherever they`d been unconcious, with Goten falling onto his back with a slightly crazed laugh of exhaustion, hair fading back to normal and falling to it`s usual black color in the process.   
  
Zangya and Piccolo emerged after Goku had somehow hauled Buu`s considerable weight up off the ground, helping the obese - former? - demon to make the walk over to a tired Hercule, while Trunks staggered out of a nearby crater in a daze, followed by a far better prepared Vegeta, who was also still quite injured and still didn`t care in the slightest. Even the Prince was just glad to be alive - openly showing that emotion and scruffing his son`s hair affectionately with a laugh in the process.   
  
If most of the people gathered in the small group weren`t paying attention, they`d`ve probably facefaulted in shock.   
  
"Yanno Piccolo," Zangya commented as she and the Namek limped persistantly towards the seemingly assigned gathering point where all of the other warriors, and one busted up Shibito, holding his hands to his wounds and willing them to begin healing thanks to the powers and skills he had acquired at 'birth' through Kibito.   
  
"This has really been a nice bonding experience, don`t ya think?" She asked.   
  
"Aside from having my intestinal track jammed into my rib cage, it almost has," Piccolo admitted begrudgingly, hobbling along on one leg to kick a cramp out of the other. "That makes it three times we`ve agreed in one day," Zangya replied with a smirk. "Four, I think..."   
  
"Your head was caved in by one of the falls and I`ve been hit so hard that my vision is still fuzzy. I seriously doubt we`re in any condition to remember anything at all..." Zangya retorted, finally pausing her walk and taking a few seconds. "Hold up," she ordered, long enough to remove the ear rings and the necklace she had been wearing, fully reverting to her normal form as a result. "Better," Piccolo muttered. "At least now you can`t kill me with one arm," he grumbled sourly in addition.   
  
"True, but that`s not the point," Zangya said, tossing the three pieces of jewelry up and catching them all with one hand before promptly pulping the lot of them out of existence with a series of small, bright red flares shining through the cracks between her still-gloved fingers, a trickle of blood finally escaping a few seconds later as she opened her hand to spill it onto the ground.   
  
"Im Frieden, schlaf," Zangya said, falling back to her native language for a single sentence before tossing her hands haphazardly behind her head and chuckling. "I`ve wanted to do that for years..."   
  
"I`ll take your word for it," Piccolo replied. "Know what else I`ve waited years to be able to do?" Zangya asked. "What?" Piccolo responded, still walking onward at a slow, wounded pace. "This," Zangya replied, grabbing Piccolo by one ear and yanking him down to eye level before planting an enormous kiss right on his lips, long and quite passionate to the eye. It lasted for several seconds, leaving Piccolo`s eyes as wide as quarters, before Zangya let go, grinning like an idiot.   
  
Silence.   
  
More silence.   
  
Silence still.   
  
And then...   
  
"**_DON`T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN!!!_**" Piccolo screamed irately, his entire face flushing a disturbingly bright shade of red with actual steam rising out of his ears as Zangya fell over backwards, laughing her head off at his mortified expression. "If only you could see yourself right now!" She shouted in between fits of laughter, rolling around in the process.   
  
  
"Heh..." Gohan voiced uneasily. It hurt his ribs to even breathe hard right now.   
  
"What?" Videl asked as she helped him in their limping, joint strides towards Goten. "Maybe now, something normal will actually happen..."   
  
"Such as?" Videl asked in between hard fought steps. "Such as us actually going on an honest-to-god date," Gohan replied in a low laugh. "Are you asking me out, Son Gohan?" Videl asked in false coyness. "Maybe," Gohan replied with that infectious family trademark of a grin. "Even though we`re probably a good bit past the phase of 'first dates,'" he reminded jokingly. "First time for everything," Videl retorted, using the Silence Glaive like an overgrown walking stick.   
  
_

End Part Thirty-Six  
  


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_ **Author`s Note:** Well, _that_ came outta left field :P One chap left folks, just to put the finishing touches on and all.  
  
**CysticLOL17:** Thankyeh. And I`m also highly glad someone was cheering for Hercule during that one, the whole point was to bring him full circle: From the dick he was in the first story to basically saving the day a half dozen times in Generations. I`m actually pretty proud of how he`s evolved. As for the holidays... I think I`ll let Cell say it for me in the next chapter >_> Minor spoiler, but who cares, eh?  
  
**perrin:** Not too sure about Cartman, but methinks he DID fuse with Mr Garrison(And I quote: "YOU GO TO HELL! YOU GO TO HELL AND YOU DIE!").  
  
**Professor Authordude:** I don`t really think of him as an annoying prick... More of an out-of-the-blue hero who makes a good punching bag and can`t pick his words properly 99.9% of the time :P  
  
Oh, almost forgot... **_BOB!_**  
  
**cobra:** Keep readin` to the end, my friend, it isn`t too far off.  
  
**diamondgirl:** Interesting point to make, actually. Injuries from death transfering to life but not vice versa(Goku didn`t have a gaping hole in his chest and Tien had his arm back when they each died the first time). Originally it was just intended as a subtle attempt at making the characters seem a bit less perfect. Ever notice how so many of the women in DBZ(fanfics AND the series) NEVER have scars? And Videl often gets the Bishoujo Treatment in most fics, so I decided to make her a lot less invincible and a lot less perfect: Thus she died halfway through the story with no real purpose to her ending, she didn`t have a particularly notable death and she ended up with a scar by the end. Goku got absorbed for about the same reason; I was out to take everybody down a notch or two if I could.  
  
**Kami:** My day has just been made man. I **never** expected anyone to say I was even on even footing with someone like Dragoness(she happens to be one of my absolute favorites after all), let alone say I was better. As for your questions... Gohan didn`t use Kaio Ken for a specific reason: Everytime he`s ever tried it, it wound up injuring him worse than his opponent did. Given that he could only do an extremely flawed, utterly imperfect version since Goku never **actually** taught him(he basically had to learn off of memory alone), and given that on at least one of the occasions(don`t remember if he`s tried it twice or not x_x;) it left him even weaker than he had started the fight as with no real gain, it would have been an exceedingly unreliable, suicidal move to try, and in a battle with someone like Majin Buu, you **cannot afford** many mistakes, if any at all.  
  
Bob didn`t even unlock a tenth of what might be Gohan`s full power, he only unlocked about a tenth of what he could actually find. It`s a very, **very** long story and I`m not really up to spending a thousand words explaining it :P Buu`s survival can really only be explained by one thing: Super Buu = **tough son of a bitch**. That or he somehow dodged into the very edge of the beam and only got swept along while being burnt to a crispy chunk of bubblegum, then eventually broke loose without ever being hit by the full portion of the beam`s power.  
  
Magic is one of Buu`s key weaknesses, because magic literally made him, that and bubblegum. Videl(and the Sailor Senshi) was using magic against him, not ki. I differentiate between the two for various reasons, and it`s also been shown that the Z-crew, while being ki powerhouses, tend to have rather shitty defenses against magic most of the time. The Grand Enforcer on the other hand, was something that shouldn`t have even existed in the first place. It also had a key weakness against magic but not half as severe as the one that Buu had, thus they really couldn`t do all that good against it until Gohan, Mirai Goten and Mirai Bra busted it open, then they were able to basically burn it`s wounds shut so that it couldn`t jam limbs back into place or heal from injury. It should also be noted that only Hotaru was shown as having died, Rei and Yuuichirou met a different fate(becoming Videl`s parents) and the others all - probably - more or less survived the battle. Whether or not anyone commited suicide from all of the carnage after it ended and Tokyo was burning to the ground is pretty much unknown.  
  
As for no one being able to sense Gohan, none of them were really paying attention other than Buu. Gohan even points it out himself that everyone seems to have suddenly forgotten how to detect ki for a while.  
  
**yume:** Could get a friend to register an e-mail at somewhere like Excite or Yahoo for you, then use that to register a new FF.net name. Oh, and don`t take them apart limb from limb TOO badly...  
  
**W. V. F.:** Nah, I personally prefer a limit of 10 so you just touched the limit. If ya got more though, mail `em to me at CultofSh33p@aol.com, I`ll answer `em if I can. As for another series... I`m already working one a nicely action packed fic in the Zoids section called New Age, as well as a series of first person introspect fics in that section too. As for DBZ, I`m still debating a sequel to Generations or not, but I`m working on a prequel to the whole damn series called Preludes. For another series altogether, I might pick some of my old work back up, though for the time being that`s up in the air, and I might also take a stab at a G Gundam fic. Like I said to Cystic: I`ll let Cell reply to the whole Happy Holidays thing for me in the next chapter >_>;  
  
*Waves an arm somehow in his body cast.* Sh33p out folks, see ya next time! 


	38. My December

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  
**

Hybrid Theory: Generations  


** _My December   
  
  
  
_ In the aftermath of Majin Buu`s genocidal day of terror, peace reigned. People were happy to just be alive, it had taken an entire race being exterminated systematically but in the end, it had turned out good for the survivors. Due to the wish, the troublemakers of at least the present generation were gone forever, while those who were good were left alive, free to re-inherit the world. Free to live in harmony with one another.   
  
That had all been seven and a half months ago. It was still as calm and quiet now as it had been after all of the celebrations had finally ended and people returned to their daily routines with a good many changes. There was a baby boom on the horizon but nobody really minded that. Fat Buu had been accepted, oddly enough, quite freely into the fold of the Earth`s population. While some people might have felt bitterness, being faced with the Judgement of Enma had left many people with a willingness to forgive and try to forget the role that that it had played in helping kick off the whole chain of events, if only because it had faced down the results and helped put a complete end to it.   
  
Buu`s being a friend of Mister Satan hadn`t exactly hurt that process, if anything, it made the surviving incarnation of Majin Buu slightly worshipped by people, given free candy whenever it asked, etc.   
  
It was Christmas time now though, and while these events held significance to him, they were actually quite distant from the thoughts of the eighteen year old Son Gohan as he touched down in the middle of the snowed over forests around he and his family`s quiet home on Mount Paozu, a number of gift bags held tightly under one arm, a freshly stocked plastic cooler under the other.   
  
He hadn`t ignored the weather either, the fact that he was wearing a thick, heavy, dark blue winter coat spoke enough of that, and the hat he had on - which looked a little silly on him to be honest - didn`t take away from that appearance. His sneakers ground softly into the snow as he began to make his way slowly up the mountainside, actually heading away from Son residence in the process before coming to a familiar clearing that was hidden from normal view by the overgrowth of trees in the area, a plain, orientally styled table that stretched all of a foot and a half up from the oddly dried dirt plainly visible once he had passed beyond the remaining bushes.   
  
"Shouldn`t you be celebrating your little holiday with the other assholes?" Cell Junior asked, still sitting plainly in front of one end of the table, legs neatly tucked within as the young man, now official since Gohan had recently become the only Son man to have earned a driver`s license on the first try, including the semi-adopted family members that Piccolo, Zangya and Krillin had all become.   
  
"Ah, show a little Christmas spirit, shithead," Gohan replied sarcastically, setting the bags down on the ground before setting the cooler next to the table and prying it open. "You`re still intent on eating dinner with me even after three and a half years of continuous death threats?" Cell asked dryly.   
  
"You can`t hurt me enough to even try to kill me yet," Gohan pointed out knowingly. He had never dropped out of the Mystic state even once in the past months, he probably wouldn`t until he died, but until then he was rather content being the only one in the family who wasn`t reliant on Super Saiyan or beyond in a fight. "Emphasis on '_yet_,'" Junior retorted sharply. "I honestly have to wonder if I turned your brain into hamburger meat along with your back those few years ago..."   
  
"No need to worry now, Blubie, I`m still quite intact," the young man replied while setting down a small smorgus board`s worth of take-out food on the table. "Just a light snack I presume?" Cell asked. "I actually want room left over," Gohan replied, prying open the box labelled 'Satan Super Double Bacon Cheeseburger with French Fries' while Cell nonchalantly tore open whichever box happened to be in front of him.   
  
_ This is my December  
This is my time of the year  
This is my December  
This is all so clear  
  
_ "Do you think he`ll be here?" ChiChi asked uncertainly, rushing around the kitchen and being followed after by Mister Popo, who had actually left the Look Out for the rare pleasure he took in helping the Sons celebrate the holidays. If there was one mortal human being that Popo considered his best friend, it was ChiChi. The two spoke every chance they got and tended to trade recipes almost half the time when not conversing about plants the other half.   
  
"I`m sure he will be," the pudgy genie promised, manuevering around in his pink-colored apron to help Mrs. Briefs toss in a custom made, two-hundred pound-capacity baking pan filled to capacity with more chocolate cake than most people could stomach even looking at into one of the four ovens in the household. Despite outward appearances, the Son House had been adapted over the years to feed a medium sized army, which it had to almost do on a semi-daily basis.   
  
"Well, he did say he had to go do something... Oh, I`m gonna be a grandmother so soon!" ChiChi squealed happily, virtually dancing around. Popo and Patti simply exchanged sideways glances with each other. Videl wasn`t even pregnant yet, nor were she and Gohan married or even engaged for that matter, and ChiChi was already busy making the wedding plans. Despite the fact that both of the people in question weren`t even ready for marriage yet.   
  
Screwy, wasn`t it?   
  
Outside was another story entirely as a very winter-ready Hans Briefs and Hercule Satan regarded the super powered equivelent of a snowball war, where snowballs had a nasty tendacy of vaporizing on impact and packing the concussive force of military-grade tank round when the participants weren`t even throwing that hard. Goku and Vegeta were presently tied with each other for only the umpteenth time in any competition they`d ever had, though this one was actually _friendly_, believe it or not. Goten was almost on the verge of overtaking both for the lead and Trunks was just trying to avoid getting nailed too many times by Zangya and the other players, who included Krillin and Yamcha both, though there was a much quieter crowd gathered around the picnic table.   
  
"They`re all nuts," Piccolo growled, holding his jacketed arms together a bit tighter. It was actually a nice improvement for his styling if you asked most of the people gathered at the house, seeing as it was one of the first times in years that Piccolo had shed his cloak and mantle for something that actually seemed relatively casual, namely a white jacket that had something of the same Middle Eastern styling as his turban - which he had yet to take off once in the past four weeks - but still the same gi shirt and pants, and shoes, as he always wore beneath that.   
  
Juuhachigou sat on the picnic bench next to him, watching her daughter`s efforts at putting together a snow man with a rare little smile, accompanied by Tien and Lunch, both of whom were either too lazy or too busy with each other to take part in anything but sitting together and being quiet. They had become pretty serious lately, to the extent that Lunch was likely already, or very soon to be pregnant. Chaozu was idly sitting between they and Juuhachi, telekinetically doming over the entire picnic area as the free-for-all continued, snowballs splattering into vaporizing sludge on the barrier he had imposed, while Dende sat to the opposite side of things, actually sitting on the table with his feet on the bench and his chin resting thoughtfully in his hands, staff jabbed into the snow and the ground beneath it for the time being.   
  
Everyone of them were in their winter clothes, just like the people taking part in the free-for-all outside the barrier.   
  
_ This is my December  
This is my snow covered home  
This is my December  
This is me alone  
  
_ "I got you again!" Goten shouted gleefully as he felled Trunks with a single snowball across the side of the face, sending the lavender headed boy crashing to the ground with a scruffy thud before he hopped back up, flinging a number of snowballs at the other boy only to have both of them fall over from being assaulted in five directions at once by Goku, Vegeta, Krillin, Yamcha and Zangya.   
  
"Suckers," Krillin grinned. "Ain`t it the truth?" Zangya asked, promptly belting Krillin with another snowball and sending the little runt crashing to the ground with a yelp of surprise.   
  
_ And I, just wish that I didn't feel  
Like there was something I missed  
  
_ "Crazy, aren`t they?" Hans asked, casually tilting his head out of the way of a snowball, which blew a chunk out of a nearby tree after missing him. "Yep," Hercule replied, taking a sip of his beer and then feeling his hair temporarily shorten down the middle when another snowball made impact with it, though the power of the afro was even stronger than a railgun snowball, poofing back up as if nothing had happened at all a second later.   
  
"What`s crazy?" Buu asked, sharing a sip of it`s own beer with Bee, who had grown rather quickly over the past months to become a healthy, large dog. Who just happened to think it was a parrot given how he perched on Buu`s shoulders so frequently. "If you don`t know by now, don`t bother asking. It`s better that way," Hans answered, tipping his head out of the way again and recieving a sagely nod from Hercule in response.   
  
"Too bad Raye ain`t here to see this," Hercule commented with a bit of a whistful tone about his wife, who had been dead for close to twelve and a half years by now. It was still a habit of his to call her by the spelling and slight difference in pronunciation her second name had given rather than stick to the old name of 'Rei Hino' when addressing her or her memory. That was in the past now, just as much as his being Yuuichirou Kumada was in the past.   
  
"Raye?" Hans asked. "... Videl`s mom, died when she was three or four and a half," Hercule answered. It had been just long enough to cloud his memory of the date it had happened on.   
  
_ And I, take back all the things I said  
To make you feel like that  
  
_ "Ah," Hans replied with a nod, stepping to the right and dodging another snowball that would`ve likely killed him instantly before stepping back over next to the other two. "Sorry to hear that," Hans said with a small shrug. "`T`s in the past," Hercule shrugged to himself before going back to his beer in peace, watching the snowball fight with thinly veiled amusement.   
  
_ And I, just wish that I didn't feel  
Like there was something I missed  
  
_ "How much longer do you think he`ll be?" Videl asked, casually leaning against the doorframe while the Ox King settled his impressive bulk down next to her, still dwarfing her despite having done so. "Not too long, he`s like his dad about timing," Ox replied quietly, watching his youngest grandson virtually dancing through a hail of snowballs from Trunks, dodging up over the last and flinging one of his own at the other boy and missing in the process.   
  
"In other words, we`ll all be half-dead," Videl replied sarcastically. "Not quite," the Ox King said with a chuckle at the ponytailed girl sitting next to him. "Knowing him, that means he`s more likely to be here a few minutes to an hour short of when dinner starts," the now-former king stated.   
  
"Ah... Lazy, lunkheaded, disordered bafoon that he is," Videl replied with a smirk. "And ya love `im for it," the Ox King shot back knowingly, not even needing to verbally joust for a reply since Videl`s ensuing blush said everything for him.   
  
_ And I, take back all the things I said to you   
  
_ "I win," the huge fellow stated proudly to himself, recieving no reply from Videl to try and fight him back over it.   
  
_ And I give it all away  
Just to have somewhere to go to  
Give it all away  
To have someone to come home to   
  
_ "You know," Cell Junior began, setting down the third empty box. "I know I qualify as something of a glutton - when I actually eat, but you take the cake..."   
  
"Yep," Gohan shrugged. "Watching you eat is a disgusting enough sight that I don`t think anyone but your family can stomach it properly..."   
  
"Yep," Gohan shrugged. "In fact..."   
  
"Just shut up and eat," Gohan ordered sardonically, promptly cramming another cheeseburger into his mouth. Whole. And swallowing it without chewing. "... I rest my case," the blue carapaced warrior grumbled before tearing open another box and diving into it face first. "And you have the nerve to call my eating habits piggish?" Gohan asked, mouth half-full in the process.   
  
"There`s a mild difference between gluttony and downing enough solid food whole - _without_ chewing may I add - to kill a pod of Orcas," Cell pointed out sharply. "And there`s also a mild difference between being a sarcastic shit and actually being funny," Gohan pointed out with the same tone, dumping the remaining fries in the box into his mouth. "And contained therein lies the joy of being me," Cell replied, chomping on a steak he had impaled with his middle finger, which was pleasantly aimed in Son Gohan`s general direction.   
  
"Try being someone else," Gohan advised sternly. "Just don`t eat the yellow snow," Cell replied. "You _would_ know about eating yellow snow, wouldn`t you?" Gohan asked smugly. "Actually, I thought you`d have more experience at it since you bury your face in it once a year," Cell retorted in the same tone. "Actually, I always thought that yellow snow would just perfectly accent the blue spots in your crown," Gohan shot back with a smirk. "Really? Make it look all golden and sparkly..."   
  
"And then melt, thus drenching your face with urine."   
  
"And then I could nuzzle your whole family, face first! Yay!"   
  
"... Riiiight... Anyway..."   
  
_ This is my December  
These are my snow covered dreams  
This is me pretending  
This is all I need  
  
_ "I could go on and on like this forever, but I won`t -" "Thank god." "- because I have a prior appointment to attend to," Gohan stated as his watch started beeping off, hauling himself out from his seat at the table and standing up with a kick of each leg. He had spent close to thirty minutes sitting there, eating with his number one enemy and had come through it all virtually unscathed, not a single punch, kick or ki blast having been thrown once during the entire time.   
  
Miracles _did_ happen, didn`t they?   
  
"In other words, you`re going to go cram another eighty pounds of food - probably all of it chocolate cake - down your gullet and then go pass out on your bedroom floor while your girlfriend sleeps on the bed," Cell replied jabbingly. "Exactly," Gohan shot back, giving the cooler a gentle kick on the side to send it sailing along on the grass and dirt and stop directly next to Cell. "Rest of the food`s your`s, eat up," Gohan offered. "Aww, charity? How kind... But I`m still -" "- going to kill me. Yes. You`ve said it enough, now shut up and enjoy the moment," Gohan ordered dryly. "Which reminds me..."   
  
"Eh?" Cell Junior asked, watching as Gohan knelt down next to one of the gift bags and opened it up, pulling out a small box, wrapped in blue paper dotted with darker patches of blue in a pattern corresponding to the one on Cell`s armored sections, which drew a raised, hairless brow from the other in response. "Merry Christmas," Gohan stated with a cryptic little smirk, tossing the box over at Cell before grabbing the other bags and turning towards the location of the Son residence, walking away without a single sound further other than a little snicker here or there.   
  
Cell still sat alone by the time that the young man had vanished down into the thick of the woods of Mount Paozu, headed for home in a straight line without ever having said anything else. Until finally...   
  
_ "... God damn little shit... He knew it`d drive me insane not to open it,"_ Cell thought annoyedly, tearing the wrapping paper off and then ripping open the cardboard box it held to find a brand new Gameboy Advanced box within, next to six packs of twelve batteries each and a little card with a picture of the two slugging it out at the 27th Tenkaichi Budoukai.   
  
_ "... What`s this?"_ Cell asked himself, opening the card only to find a written message, nothing fancy, just something easily identified as Gohan`s handwriting.   
  
_

Merry Christmas, Cell Junior.  
The Gameboy idea came from Buu, there are three or four games  
stowed away beneath the box but you`ll need to put batteries in  
to operate it. Think of it as a holiday peace offering or something  
...  
  
- Son Gohan   
  
P.S. - **FUCK YOU!**

_  
  
At this, Cell actually cracked a smile and spoke up himself a few seconds later.   
  
"Nice to see even the Christmas spirit can`t touch how much he and I hate each other... Which reminds me," he smirked.   
  
_ And I give it all away  
Just to have somewhere to go to  
Give it all away  
To have someone to come home to   
  
_ "**_MERRY MOTHER FUCKING CHRISTMAS TO YOU TOO!!!_**" Cell`s voice echoed down the mountainside. Any louder and it would have caused an avalanche, as it stood, it only caused Gohan to lose his balance and fall over laughing.   
  
_ This is my December  
This is my time of the year  
This is my December  
This is all so clear  
  
_ And the rest of the afternoon went by, passing in half an hour as Gohan continued to make his way down the mountainside, taking the long way if only because it had been a few months since he had actually bothered to take his time for anything other than sleep, so he intended on making it count.   
  
And he succeeded so well that it was dark outside by the time he arrived at the Son home, after even Master Roshi and the remainder of the Kame Island crew had shown up. That was fine by Gohan though, especially since that meant he didn`t have to put up with too much dodging around to try and avoid snowballs, nor did he have to spend an hour talking things through with everyone. Gohan didn`t like being the center of attention, he never did and he never would, so he tended to do things in such a way that anyone else involved would wind up being noticed more.   
  
But it seemed that didn`t stop at least one person from having decided to wait on him.   
  
"Piccolo, what in the blue _hell_ are you doing out here right now?" Gohan asked at his mentor, who was currently leaned against a slightly pock marked tree, looking as if he had just seen the devil himself. "... Buu dropped a sandwhich on Vegeta`s head and then into his lap... And... And..."   
  
"And?"   
  
"And Vegeta just _smiled_ and handed it back!" Piccolo replied in horror. Gohan blinked several times in surprise. "Was it a malignant, 'I`ll kill you if you ever even think of doing that again' kind of smile?" Gohan asked worriedly. "< i>No, that`s the scary part! He smiled _benevolently_ and didn`t even threaten to blow Buu off the face of the Earth! That house is cursed, it has to be," Piccolo ranted, visibly resisting the urge to run away and hide. "... Just be sure to come in before you get frostbite, deal?" Gohan asked. "As long as I`m not left alone with that... That _thing_ claiming to be Vegeta, it`s a deal," Piccolo replied uneasily. "Alright," Gohan replied, shaking his head and continuing on towards the front door.   
  
And that was where he found the second person who`d had the courtesy of waiting on him.   
  
_ And I give it all away  
Just to have somewhere to go to   
  
_ "Fashionably late?" Videl asked with a smirk, shifting the scar on her cheek back a bit. "Least I avoided most of my mom bragging about our eventual marriage," Gohan replied sheepishly before dropping the bags and leaning forward to lift Videl off of her feet with his hands to her hips. "Happy to see me, I`m guessing?" Videl asked with mock-casualty. "As always," Gohan replied in the same tone before dropping the girl right down to slide along his arms and bump into his face in the form of a kiss.   
  
_ Give it all away  
To have someone to come home to   
  


End Generations  
  


* * *

  
  


_ **Author`s Note:** And so, it`s all but over... Emphasis on 'but.' There remains a single part in this epic story to tell, and it`ll go up on New Year`s Eve, if you`re wondering.  
  
**CysticLOL17:** Now that all the major twists are out of the way, feel free to spoil to your heart`s content :P There`s only one piece left anyway.  
  
**W. V. F.:** Already answered the questions in a mail, and I`m glad you enjoyed the Piccolo and Zangya kiss scene >_> Was something I`d been building to for quite some time. And before anyone can say it: **NO!** Piccolo and Zangya are not an item, they never have been and they never will be. She was just torturing him like she always does.  
  
**Cash:** Shame ya found it near it`s end :P Glad you think so highly of it though, makes me feel pretty happy when reviewers show that kind of praise.  
  
**diamondgirl:** Yeah, pretty much. The red stage was what I called Envoked(Zangya, Bojack and Gokuha all do it in the HT series at least once each), which is basically(for Goten anyway) an excessive degree of rage, anguish, despair and hatred bubbling to the surface and giving a major increase in power. Embodiment would take too long to explain, so I won`t :p As for the scar thing... Like I said, minor flaws like that help make them seem more vulnerable, like Gohan`s nervous breakdowns, Videl`s scar, Zangya`s inability to really show grief, etc.. And yeah, am I not the only one who could see Goku doing and saying that?  
  
**Kami:** Glad to see so many people agreeing with how I`ve altered characters at some points here and there, and I`m also glad people like how I`ve shifted the weight of the story off of one all important character and over to pretty much everyone to some extent or another. Hell, if any characters should get standing ovations here, it`s Goten and Hercule. They were the ones who ultimately killed Buu, and Hercule was ultimately the savior of the entire universe given how damned charismatic he can be when it counts.  
  
**yume:** Like I said, one part left. Also happy you liked the Zangya-Piccolo kiss scene so much :D It had quite the lead-in, eh? Something like six years of on-and-off headgames and semi-friendly torment culminating in an ultimate victory for Zangya... Or so it seems >_>  
  
**Professor Authordude:** Yeah, Cell has a Bester-like quality to him. A villian you can actually come close to finding likeable... And then he does something truly HORRIBLE. Oh, and since this is the last time I`ll be shoutin` out the Divine Name, **BOB**, here`s one last **BOB** for the road: **_BOB!!!!!_**  
  
**anonymous:** *Stamps with Gohan Fangirl or Fanboy sign.* I guess ya missed my last reply to such a thing: Gohan can`t combine Mystic with Super Saiyan(ANY level of it) without killing himself and likely blowing up anything within a big friggin` distance. As for the scholar thing... Gohan isn`t a born fighter like Goku or Vegeta, the reason he kept training in the Hybrid Theory series is because Goku`s death and the subsequent message that the fate of the Earth was in **his** hands now effected him differently. He fights and trains out of personal conviction, using the tournaments as little more than a proving ground to make sure he hasn`t become complacent or anything. He`s different from the Gohan of the original series, but he isn`t going to lose his yearning to become a scholar. Besides, have to pay the bills somehow and tournaments like the Budoukai only pop up every three to seven years...  
  
That`s all for now folks, see ya on New Year`s with the final part of the Hybrid Theory series for the foreseeable future! *Waves and then heads off to go tear open some Christmas presents.* And that reminds me...  
  
To paraphrase CJ: **MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!!**  
  
Sh33p out. 


	39. EP  Its Goin Down

  
  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own DBZ.  
  


* * *

  
  


** Hybrid Theory EP  
__** It`s Goin` Down   
  
  
  


The Tenkaichi Budoukai Arena, Tinoca Island. The rumble of the crowd was distant at best given the location of seven year old Son Pan, a little girl on the cusp of fate even though she wasn`t even past her first decade yet. She was nervous, she was ready and she was willing to take part in her first Tenkaichi, already ranking as the youngest potential champion in the tournament`s lengthy, privileged history.   
  
At present, Pan-chan - as Krillin and several others had dubbed her - was hopping around in the waiting room on one foot, short, straight black hair bouncing with each movement she made, the plain orange fighting douji her grandmother had made for her weighing lightly on her small frame, looking like a mirror of her mother in her father`s fighting uniform, complete with a light blue t-shirt worn underneath. At seven years old, Son Pan was ready to go make history.   
  
Assuming she could finish working out the nervous kinks that were plaguing her.   
  
"Don`t worry about it," her uncle, Son Goten, ordered pleasantly, crouching down in front of her with that unbelievably infectious family grin, his wildly kept, Gokuesque hair bouncing slightly in the process. "Me an` Trunks both took part in one of these when we were only three and four and a half and neither of us were half as strong as you are," he reassured her, still grinning.   
  
"... You guys had a junior`s division though..."   
  
"Which was abolished a tournament later," Goten reminded her. "Too bad you were still a baby back at the first tournament without it, you`d`ve probably liked watchin` me and your dad go at it in the semi-finals," he exclaimed proudly. "Nevermind the fact that you lost," Pan pointed out, blowing a raspberry into her uncle`s face. "Ah, don`t spit on me..."   
  
"Can it, runt," Zangya cut in, gently smacking Goten across the back of the head. "You look better with spit on your face," Pan exclaimed brightly. "... Eh..."   
  
"It`s true! Isn`t it Aunt Zangya?" Pan asked sternly. "I`ll take your word for it," Goten replied dryly, wiping his face off and standing up at the ready, leaning back against a nearby wall and leering over at the presently gathered competition. "Five... Four... Three... Two..."   
  
There was a distinct crash as a certain lavender haired teen rolled through the door, literally tearing it off of it`s hinges in the process before skidding along, rapidly grabbing it by the top rim and shoving it up as hard as possible, smacking a random stalker and at least two reporters in the face with it as he did so, then using a highly controlled ki beam to melt the door into place.   
  
"Wow, a split second early... I`d`ve thought the mob would keep you busy longer," Goten said with an honest tone of voice, followed by a lazy shrug. "_**I HATE YOU!!!**_" Trunks screamed irately at his still-best friend. "Aww, come on! It`s just payback for all the times you switched out my shampoo with sulfuric acid and put pepper spray in place of my aftershave..."   
  
"Not to mention the times he used your tooth brush to clean the toilet when he was staying over at the Son House," Vegeta added bluntly as he entered the room. "Don`t remind me," Goten replied with a slight twitch. "Don`t tip off the press and the fangirls or else I`ll kill you," Trunks threatened annoyedly. "... Trunks, you couldn`t kill me if I _let_ you," Goten replied smugly. "... I hate you sometimes..."   
  
"And the saga continues," Zangya grumbled, ruffling Pan`s hair affectionately before leaning forward and glancing around the room. "Not much in the way of competition this year, eh?" She asked, focusing on Vegeta a few seconds later. "Kakarot and Gohan haven`t arrived yet, Cell is -" "Right beside you." "- ... Whatever," Vegeta growled, having successfully managed to hide his surprise when Cell Junior literally popped up next to him, sipping on a Dr Pepper.   
  
"Where`s Spikey?" Cell asked, only to spill his drink and stagger forward a second later as Gohan popped up out of the shadows, one hand on his father`s shoulder, both wearing the same style of douji as Pan. "You need to learn manners," Cell growled. "Ah, come to lose again, Blubie?" Gohan asked with a sadistic little smirk.   
  
"I`ve been training," Cell replied cryptically. "Win, lose or draw, this is _it_," Cell stated. "I`ve beaten you twice in a row, three outta three won`t look good on your record," Gohan replied while waltzing his way around the blue carapaced warrior. "Maybe, but at least I`ll be able to call it quits," the other replied sternly as the demi-saiyan grabbed his daughter up and tossed her onto his shoulder with a squeal from the girl. Goku on the other hand...   
  
"About time you showed up, Kak-rot," Vegeta muttered, thoughtfully leaving out the second 'a' in Goku`s Saiyan name, making it sound like something else entirely. "Gee, love you too _Veggie_," Goku retorted sarcastically. "Bad enough Gohan, ChiChi and Bulma won`t let us train anymore -" "You two are at retirement age, enjoy it." "- but now you`re calling me genital rot? Come on man..."   
  
"So much for my chance of a win," Zangya shrugged, her black-and-white douji resting quite plainly on her frame in the process. "Least you had the balls to fight," Vegeta commented with a smirk. "More than we can say for Piccolo..."   
  
"Isn`t his fault that he actually felt like watching us bludgeon each other senseless without him for once," Goku pointed out as Pan squirmed free from her father`s grip and dropped to her feet. "Doesn`t mean I can`t harrass the snot out of him for it," Vegeta shot back, though it was the last thing on Pan`s mind as she started to walk away from the others, looking for something to do in order to bide her time.   
  
_ Watch them flee  
Hip-Hop hits  
And you do it like this  
It's goin' down   
  
_ V.I.P. seating in a room gauranteed by the champ-turned-current Tenkaichi Budoukai manager had it`s advantages. For one, they were in a room originally reserved for when the Emperor came to watch the Budoukai, but with the Emperor having turned the world over to a complete democracy once and for all, that left it vacant.   
  
Until Hercule came to power over the process of running the Budoukai. Now the room was reserved every three years to play host to a number of guests who qualified as his own personal friends, and friends of his family, and in more than one case, actual family due to being in-laws. At the moment though, the room was occupied by Piccolo Junior, Son ChiChi, Bulma and Bra Briefs, Juuhachigou, Krillin Chestnut, Marron, Son Videl, Son Rase, Mister Buu, a well grown dog named Bee, Yamcha Soza and Puar, a group that considered itself an extended family as it was, even adding Buu and Bee.   
  
The mood was relatively quiet inside, a little anxious but still pretty quiet, especially for Videl. At age twenty-six, the mother of two and the wife of the reigning Tenkaichi Budoukai champion, as well as a former champion herself and a rising star in the world of politics, Videl had seen a lot. She`d watched her husband die once - while she was giving birth to their daughter no less, she had witnessed her brother-in-law making a final peace with himself, watched in stunned, humorful awe on the day that Gohan had literally kicked Goku and Vegeta into taking vacations from their training for as long as Bulma and ChiChi had willed it, observed the son of an alien prince retire from active training and fighting almost all together and a good many other things, including the birth of her second child.   
  
And she had also fought against evil and triumphed, she had died herself and come back to life to do it all again and she wouldn`t have traded it for anything in the world, even if it meant getting rid of the scar across her cheek from the fight with the last of the evil Buus.   
  
With Rase rocking up and down on one of her knees though, Videl felt a good bit of concern for her first born and her husband. Mainly since she had retired from fighting like a sane person while neither of them would even consider it, Gohan out of personal convictions and Pan out of her mother`s inherited tomboy attitude, which left her out of the way of the fighting to only see the action herself from a distance.   
  
Not that she didn`t like the life of not having to fight to get by, but still. It was the first tournament for Gohan in close to fifteen years without her involved, the first tournament entirely for Pan and it promised to be one of the most intense, even though real competition for the two was scarce compared to past tournaments.   
  
But still, idly leaning forward and holding her head in one hand, running a rounded-off nail lightly over the scar on her cheek, Videl couldn`t help but feel that _something_ was going to happen today. Rase`s quiet looks of aged, thoughtful concern down at the ring didn`t exactly help how she felt. The bouncing, one year old baby boy was like his father had spat out an exact copy of himself - bar the tail he`d had as a child - and given him Videl`s blue eyes for good measure, save that his eyes also seemed to be loaded with a wisdom that could scarcely be found in the most intelligent of scholars, despite his age.   
  
"Something wrong?" ChiChi asked quietly. "No," Videl replied almost reflexively. "Yeah, it never is easy once you aren`t there with them," ChiChi replied knowingly, leaning forward onto the surface of the wall that bordered the bottom of the panoramic-view window. "Tell me about it," Videl replied dryly.   
  
_ The rhythm projects 'round the next sound  
Reflects the complex hybrid dialect now  
Detect the mesh of many elements compressed down  
The melting pot of a super-futureesque style  
  
_ Pan shifted quietly on one foot once again as one of her grandfathers, Hercule Satan, ran by with a wave and a smile that could shatter glass, heading for the ring as quickly as he could, microphone in hand. She gave a timid little wave in reply though, beaming up at the huge fellow before turning around and cocking her head to the side curiously.   
  
She wasn`t the only kid fighting in the tournament. Probably the youngest, but not the only one. Tucking her hands behind her head in the same fashion she`d learned from imitating Zangya through the years, Pan gingerly waltzed over, tapping the dark skinned boy in front of her on the shoulder and leaning around him with a raised eyebrow. "Whatcha lookin` at?" Pan asked, watching the boy fall over onto his face and spring back up with a sheepish laugh.   
  
"I didn`t do it!" He shouted. "Didn`t do what?" Pan asked. "Oh... Reflex," the boy answered sarcastically. "Ah... I know how that goes," Pan mumbled with a sideways glance before resuming her mini-inquisition. "Whatcha lookin` at?" She asked.   
  
"A flower..."   
  
"A flower shot up in the middle of a concrete floor?" Pan asked with cynicism beyond her years. "... Two actually, " the boy replied, stepping back carefully to reveal a small dandylion having sprouted up in the floor, just as he had said. "... Oh," Pan replied with a blink, staring at it for several seconds before looking back up.   
  
"Where`s the other?" She asked. "Uhm..."   
  
"Well?" She asked again, cracking her knuckles in that menacing way that any seven year old girl will do to intimidate a boy of the same age. "... Erm, it`s standing right in front of me, actually," the boy replied, laughing sheepishly in a manner which caused that weird, dark brown mohawk of his to rustle from side to side a bit.   
  
"I`m Pan, and you`re weird," she stated, offering up a hand at the boy`s corny antics. "Uub," he replied, gingerly giving her hand a shake that actually made Pan wince a bit. "You`re strong..."   
  
"... Yeah... Heh..." He replied uneasily, glancing over at the glare that Gohan, Vegeta and Goku were all giving him and then quickly making himself scarce. "I`m gonna go get a drink," he said, already half-way out the door by then.   
  
"... Weirdo..." Pan muttered.   
  
_ The combination of a vocal caress  
With lungs that gasp for breath  
From emotional stress  
With special effects  
  
_ "... Dude," Goten gaped at his older brother, father and semi-adopted uncle-figure. "She`s only seven, start glaring at the boys when she hits puberty for Dende`s sake..." He ordered with audible sarcasm and disbelief. "Wasn`t about that, but I`ll take your advice anyway," Gohan replied, watching the boy dubbed Uub quickly exit the lounge, heading straight for the canned drinks.   
  
"Think it was him?" Goku asked. "'Him?'" Zangya questioned an instant later. "Yeah," Gohan grumbled, jabbing his father with one elbow. "... Oh come on, it`s not like it did any harm in the long run... You made it back and all anyway, right?"   
  
"Since neither of them are going to say jack without being kicked in the groin, Kakarot made a wish about four months after the battle with Majin Buu," Vegeta explained dryly. "Yeah well... I asked for him to be reborn with all of his power but a pure, good heart and as a human," Goku finished before Vegeta could slander him somehow. "Ah. That explains that," Goten muttered. "Yep," Zangya and Trunks both replied.   
  
_ And a distorted collage   
  
_ "... And the first match-up of the 28th Tenkaichi Budoukai is... _**SON GOHAN VERSUS UUBU BUBLEY!**_" Hercule`s voice boomed loudly into the lounge, and down the hall echoed a squeak of abstract terror followed by a light thud as the small form of a seven year old boy fell over backwards with the following sound being that of an unopened canned drink smacking into the floor and rolling along.   
  
"... Well, guess we`re about to find out," Trunks comented sardonically.   
  
_ Carefully lodged between beats of rhythmic barrage   
  
_ Minutes passed as Uub scraped himself up off the floor, heading for the exit to the lounge like someone who was being lead to the gas chamber, though Gohan followed along at a ginger pace, with the twenty-seven year old pausing long enough to give a wave up at the room where Videl, Rase and the others were sitting in, then continuing onward towards the ring after Uub, while Hercule passed them both on the way out, taking the announcer`s seat.   
  
Which was situated behind a seven inch thick steel wall with a single slit cut into it to allow for viewing the fights.   
  
_ It's goin' down  
The logical progression on a the timeline  
The separation narrowed down to a fine line  
To blur the edges so they blend together properly  
  
_ "Ah, cheer up," Gohan ordered, rousing Uubu out of his stupor as the two ascended the steps into the ring, heading for opposite ends. "Not every day a kid get`s to face off with the champion," he assured, crossing his arms over his chest as Uub gave a passive wave to a pair of people situated in the audience.   
  
"... By any chance, are you made of chocolate?" Gohan asked casually, mentally pointing out the fact that Uub looked nothing like either of his parents. "How`d you know? Most people just think my mom had an affair with the mailman..."   
  
"Long story," Gohan replied, crouching down and taking an actual fighting stance with a smirk on his face. "Attack me, _now_," he ordered, intentionally leaving himself wide open for as many attacks as he could reasonably endure. "Eh?" Uub asked. "Don`t ask, do," Gohan ordered again, narrowing his eyes. "Or are you a little wimp who just thought he could hang with the big boys?" He asked with a Vegeta-esque smirk, intentionally trying to rile the kid up into attacking him.   
  
"**_FIGHT!_**"   
  
"... Now I`m mad," Uub growled with a snort, bending forward.   
  
_ Take you on an audible odyssey   
  
_ "Then come and do something about it."   
  
With a yell, Uubu willed himself to do just that by diving forward and literally defying gravity without even knowing how to fly, _or_ hover.   
  
_ Now it's goin' down   
  
_ "Holy...!"   
  
The sentiment in the V.I.P. room, and across the arena - and across the world with everyone who was watching it on television - was the same as the two fighters began having their match, with Gohan taking the initial advantage before Uub backflipped out of the way and caught him off guard with a headbutt, sending the champion reeling for several steps before a kick snapped the momentum back into his favor, throwing Uub into a bouncing skid along the tiling of the ring, swinging around on one hand and the side of one knee into a kneeling position, jumping back up an instant later.   
  
_ Put it out for the world to see  
LP and X-men to the 10th degree  
Nobody in the world is safe  
When we melt down the wax in your record crate   
  
_ "How`s this?!" Uub asked, visibly working hard just to try and land a hit before slipping one through Gohan`s defenses on a fluke and sending the older fighter rocking back for a second or two before Gohan straightened up and slung himself forward, smacking Uubu in the scalp with his own forehead and sending the boy skidding back again, but not knocking him off of his feet.   
  
"Just fine in fact," Gohan replied with an ever widening smirk.   
  
_ It's goin' down   
  
_ "That`s him alright," Goku pointed out, watching the boy who was actually managing to hold back his son`s rapid attacks with a reasonable level of success, halting each incoming strike and trying to reverse it, though a severe lack of technique crippled his attempts at a turnaround. For someone who had obviously _never_ been trained in any formal style of fighting, and someone who wasn`t even eight yet, he was holding his own marvelously. "It figures," Vegeta growled. "Bubblegum beget`s chocolate cake... Almost makes me wanna bite the little bastard`s head off just to see what it tastes like," he added casually.   
  
"Drop the act Dad," Trunks ordered calmly. "Train more, lazy bum," Vegeta shot back at his son, knowingly just sparking him to stop training all together. It was what the Prince wanted after all, he had come to measure success a bit differently than he used to.   
  
_ Put it up  
And it goes like this   
  
_ Gohan blocked, Uubu drew back and jumped into a movie-styled spinkick.   
  
_ And you do it like this  
It's goin' down   
  
_ Gohan dodged, Uubu recovered and tried to sweep out the larger fighter`s legs, failing and recieving a harsh boot to the jaw as a result, sending a small trickle of red down from the corner of the boy`s mouth, which he languidly wiped away with a grunt, not looking like he was used to actual pain.   
  
_ Once again it is   
  
_ "That was mean," Uub grumbled, more in annoyance than pain. "Don`t take it personally, this is usually a friendly competition but people get hurt by default sometimes," the older fighter chastised lightly, lowering down again. "Now are you going to attack me or are we going to sit around all day?" He asked with another of those damned smirks. "... Alright," Uub replied, jumping forward again only to drop down beneath the kick that Gohan had thrown out in anticipation, hopping forward and backflipping up, planting both feet into the back of the other fighter`s head in the process before flipping off of him, landing in front where he had started the entire process, on all fours for a moment.   
  
"Not bad," Gohan congratulated, regaining his balance and checking the back of his head for any possible bleeding, only to find a slight bruise forming beneath the crook of the space between his skull and his neck. "Not bad at all," he added, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Say, how would you like to be my student? A bit of work and you could probably match Pan on a pretty even basis, maybe even top her with enough training," Gohan offered, carefully picking his words.   
  
"... Your student? But I have school..."   
  
"... I`m a scholar, Uub. I teach school from kindergarten to college levels daily just because I have nothing better to do when I`m not training or being with my family," Gohan replied dryly. "So you could teach me how to... Erm... Read?"   
  
"You don`t know how to read?"   
  
"One of the therapists said I have ADD or somethin`..."   
  
"Ah. Don`t worry about that, I`ve taught kids like that how to read before. Heck, I basically schooled my own little brother up until he was ten and wanted to go to public school," Gohan said with a shrug, placing his hands on his belt and methodically picking the kid apart at the mental level, and conveniently forgetting to mention the time he`d spent dead while doing it. "So I could learn to read and write and do math and all that?"   
  
"If you`re who I think you are, you could pull it off as I`m training you to fight," Gohan replied confidently. "Uh..."   
  
_ Composed sentences all together venomous  
The four elements of natural force  
Projected daily through the sound of the source  
Everybody on board with this blend  
The sword with the pen  
The mightiest is the weapons  
  
_ "Well... I guess so if my parents let me," Uub replied unsteadily. "No problem, we can ask them right now," Gohan stated, darting forward and grabbing the boy by the wrist before flying over to the two people he had singled out as the kid`s parents, holding him up by the arm with a curious expression. "Hey Mom, Dad," Uub greeted awkwardly as Gohan spoke up.   
  
"Since your son here seems to have a lot potential as far as fighting goes - and he has a few learning problems I think I can hammer out - is it too much to ask if I train him while schooling him on how to read, do math and all the normal things kids his age are supposed to learn?" Gohan asked curiously, floating upside down a few feet above the two, holding Uub perilously close to being rung out in the process. Both of his parents blinked several times before nodding mutely.   
  
"Great! Page Son Videl after the tournament, she`ll give you our home address and phone number and we can work something better out from there, see ya!" Gohan exclaimed, already vanishing off into the skies in the process.   
  
"What in the heck just happened?" Mr. Bubley asked his wife, the entire right side of his face twitching somewhat in shock. "... A miracle?" Mrs. Bubley asked, watching as Gohan and Uub vanished over the horizon.   
  
  
"... **_I AM NOT LETTING HIM GET AWAY WITH THIS!!!_**" Cell shrieked, vanishing in a blur after placing two fingers to his forehead.   
  
"... Well, I guess that means a few people are going to have a bleeding chance in Hell of making it to the finals," Vegeta commented sourly. "Ah well, least no one`s here to stop... Us... Nevermind," Goku grumbled at the narrow-eyed glare of challenge that his remaining son was giving him.   
  
"... Well folks, looks like three of our fighters just vanished..." Hercule commented. "So they`re all disqualified. Ah well, we`ll get an answer next go round," he said with a shrug. "Next match is... _**SON PAN VERSUS TOLERO BOLVINI!**_"   
  
"Do your best but don`t kill him!" Goten, Zangya, Trunks and Goku all shouted in the same instant. The scary part was that they actually sounded encouraging in a normal, family-type of way while doing it...   
  
_ Swinging right from the chin  
The elevate of mental states  
Long gone with the wind  
To defend men for shoddy imitation pretends  
  
_ "Where are we going?" Uub asked in a frightened manner, feeling the wind rush around him at such a speed for the first time in his life, currently riding along on Gohan`s upper back, legs hooked under the newly-decrowned champion`s arms in the process. "440 Mountain District, Mount Paozu. My wife and I have a second house out there that my daughter and I usually use to train," Gohan replied. "Good place to start learning the basics though," he stated.   
  
"... Cool?"   
  
"Yeah, actually. Ever been on a mountain?" Gohan asked. "Nope," Uub replied, just as the two came to a screeching halt when a certain blue carapaced warrior with quite a disgruntled expression appeared in front of them, growling angrily.   
  
"You aren`t worming out of this Son," he muttered. "Ah, you`ve waited eight years, what`s another day or two?" Gohan asked annoyingly, knowing it would get under his old enemy`s skin. "_**TOO DAMN LONG!**_" Cell yelled in reply, a vein bulging in the exposed region of his right temple. "Thought so," Gohan replied. "Hey Uub, remember when you were gliding along trying to kick me?" Gohan asked his new student.   
  
"Yeah..."   
  
"Think you could manage to try that gliding trick to get yourself down to the ground?" Gohan asked, making sure that the area below was a mostly empty forest region. "If I had to."   
  
"Good," Gohan stated, gently righting himself and prying the boy off of his back by the scruff of his neck, though not dropping him. "I`m gonna let go now Uub, sure you can manage it?" He asked. "If I can`t, I`m probably gonna be a chocolate pancake pretty soon..." Uubu replied uneasily, waiting for Gohan to let go. "If you start falling, don`t worry. You`ll survive unscathed, I`m betting," Gohan replied, releasing Uub and watching the boy slowly begin to float down as if tethered to a parachute.   
  
_ It's going down  
Stalence emulation readily  
Trekking through the weaponry  
Of the pure pedigree  
  
_ "Now that that`s out of the way," Cell began, curling into a fighting stance and beginning to gather his strength up. "Yeah... I`ve kept you waiting for this for far too long, haven`t I?" Gohan replied, drifting back and straightening up. "No kills?" He asked. "No rules but victory," Cell replied. "No kills," Gohan demanded. "No death then," Cell added. "And you had better follow the rules," Cell growled. "I will, what about you?" Gohan asked, starting to slowly gather his own strength up from within in the process.   
  
"I always follow the rules," Cell replied, just as the entire sky erupted into a blaze of shooting light. "But now... Heh... Now, Son," he began, pausing briefly before continuing with his words.   
  
_ Cleverly seeing through whatever is ahead of me  
Whatever the weather be  
We invent the steadily  
It's going down to sub-terrestrial high   
  
_ "**_END OF THE GAME!_**" Cell screamed, closing the distance rapidly with a competitive smile, mirrored by his incoming opponent, an aura of gold clashing with an aura of reddish orange and a number of strikes promptly ringing out as the two semi-mortal enemies traded blows for the first time in over half a decade, leaving each other to stagger back after a few seconds.   
  
"You`ve gotten better," Gohan complimented, rubbing his sore jaw as Cell wiped the blackening bruise off of his own face and spoke up in reply. "So have you," he said without pause, immediately diving forward again with another yell.   
  
_ I rhyme regiment that's calling the shots  
Execution of collaborative plots  
Ready to bring the separation of style to a stop   
It's goin' down...  
  
_ There had been numerous threats over the years, there would be numerous more to come. There had been a few new allies, many new enemies, a new drama, a new heartbreak and a new hope with each and every one of them, and all involved who had lived to tell the tale felt the process would repeat itself again and again for as long as Time went by, and as it did, it went by at an unstopping rate, leaving behind thousands of stories in it`s path, but none were quite as dramatic as the story of the Sons, Briefs, Chestnuts and those around them, because until them, there were numerous epics...   
  
But none had taken a hybrid theory and made into a reality, and none ever would again, but that was okay.   
  
At least they`d always have the Dragonballs and a load of good luck, right?   
  
_

End Hybrid Theory  
  


* * *

  
  


_ **Author`s Note:** And there you have it folks, the end of the series for the foreseeable future. Since I already wrote the main AN, this is just for questions and responses and such.  
  
**Kami:** Videl and Gohan had their big talk within that seven months between My Sacrifice and My December. As for a sequel... Any sequel would be set within that ten year grace period. A whole lot of shit hits the fan in that time, and it would probably focus **very** heavily on Goten, probably even more than on Gohan or anyone else. As it stands though, I doubt I`ll write it anytime soon, if ever. About the Gold Fighter Chronicles: I basically hit writer`s block central on it and gave up. It was a slow moving story to begin with, but if I ever revive it, I`ll let ya know :P  
  
**CysticLOL17:** Yeah, Vegeta mellowed out drastically after dying, venting out a lifetime of frustrations and such in Hell(... those poor Aisu...), being brought back, learning that Goku was basically 'taking it easy on him,' having a serious smackdown session with Gohan and then getting his back broken, then finally coming back to life and finding out he was actually a bonafied good guy... Well, it basically drained most of the arrogant bastard out of him. He`s still a bastard of course, just not prone to letting pride over something that he forsook a while back take control of his actions. All of the things that have happened have also left him a smidge more caring about his family, though he and Bulma aren`t married and they probably never will be.  
  
As for Gohan and Cell Junior... All great duels have moments of pause, after all.  
  
**Cash:** For the time being, this is **very** likely to be the end of the series. Never know though...  
  
**anonymous:** *Tempted to spend an hour saying "Hey!" and "What!?" like on The Tick.* :p   
  
**diamondgirl:** Actually, Gohan and Cell Junior is modeled a good bit more on Piccolo and Goku`s initial feuding. Cell even lives in the spot that Piccolo used to call home for a while during the five years between DB and DBZ, and their first battle featured an homage to Goku vs Piccolo back in Dragonball`s last Tenkaichi Budoukai/WMAT. Krillin and Piccolo even commented on it themselves, though I won`t say what the homage is :P  
  
**P.L.S.:** Assuming I do the sequel pieces that center on Goten, expect to see **lots** of that insane genius. Doubt I will though. As for CJ and Gohan... Yeah, those two go the whole nine yards, don`t they? Almost like Germany and the allies in World War I :P Still as happy as ever to see people think so highly of my work on these stories.  
  
**cobra:** Yeah, this is the end. Probably the permanent end but ya never know.  
  
**Professor Authordude:** Nah... Vegeta was just a bit broken in :P *Points at what he explained to Cystic.* And yay! Someone`s advertisin` meh :D As for Gohan and Goku... It always struck me as a little weird that he`d be so at ease about it all, but at the same time it always struck me as somewhat overdone that he`s only ever angry about himself. This is a guy who generally doesn`t ever respond to insults against himself, among other things. I could easily see him being far angrier about how it left Goten and ChiChi than himself.  
  
**Demas:** Like I`ve said enough in this section: Ya never know.  
  
**yume:** *Hands hankerchief.* Cultofsh33p@aol.com, that`s my e-mail. Drop me a line when you get your story up :D  
  
And the major AN is next if you feel like reading it. If not: Sayonara, adios, good-bye and sehen sie sie folgendes mal! Sh33p out.  
  



	40. Theory to Reality

  
  
**

Theory to Reality  


**_ The Big Bad Author`s Note from Hell   
  
  
  
_ It all started one night in January, at the start of 2002. I was reading one night in the Dragonball Z section of FanFiction.net, checking over all of the songfics and realizing more by the second that all of the stories at the time were more or less completely focused on two aspects:   
  
1) Cheesy music(boybands and such)   
  
and   
  
2) Cheesy scenery   
  
Usually these stories at the time tended to focus more so on the song rather than the story, and I thought to myself, "Gee, I can do better than that, can`t I?" It was around the time my confidence had started to wane in my own writing ability, the Alternates series had basically flopped and I had lost interest in Next In Line, Dark Future and another series of stories called No Hiding Place, and at the time I was also just beginning to experiment with HTML format in my stories.   
  
About three tries later, I had made up my mind after a vigorous dosage of the then-new Linkin Park major debut CD, Hybrid Theory. At the time I was looking for both a title, and a list of songs that wouldn`t overwrite the story or take away from it at the same time, and after a while I stumbled across the first five songs of the entire series, and as I listened to them, the basic storyline of what became the first of a series of action/adventure stories formed in my head.   
  
I was going to set out to try and re-write a genre in a way I hadn`t even seen anyone other than the Mirai Shock crew try doing, and in a way I`ve only seen two other people(Kami and Zinou) try to do since, and whether or not I succeeded is more or less up to the people who read the stories and made up their minds for themselves.   
  
By the end of writing Hybrid Theory, I had the songfic bug biting me in the ass several times over, even as I got my first review from a person named Meesh, praising my abilities as an author, followed by two reviews from someone named Phillip, the second of which demanded the sequel that was begging me to be written. Then came the last boost I needed to start forming the idea when Azazelgirl left me a review that helped me feel vindicated in my feelings of what a songfic should be.   
  
Four major sequels and seven side stories later, that last boost I got, combined with a good deal of help along the way from the reviewers who read and contributed their own ideas and thoughts on the story and potential ideas for it`s future, helped me to bolster my own confidence in my writing ability, and further my ability to tell a story without feeling like I was unable to do so properly.   
  
All I have to say, to put it simply, is that by the end of it all, I felt _damn good_. The fact that several of my own favorite authors put down positive reviews for the series certainly helped that fact, and even those that didn`t and instead just stuck me on their favorites, or stuck one of the stories onto their favorites, helped me to continue on, regardless of those few people who weren`t satisfied and decided to openly show it through a review.   
  
In the end, I guess it was all worth while. It let me play out some of the scenes I had craved doing(Cell/Bojack-era Gohan against Dabura, Gohan vs Piccolo, Goten`s Embodiment, the Cell Junior battle, Gotenks` Lunar Bowling Ball, Warble and a good many others stand out above the rest), pull out twists that I had hidden from the start(Rei and Yuuichirou being Videl`s parents, with Yuuichirou eventually becoming Hercule), others that came along the way but were either blaringly obvious or impossible to detect depending on how close one paid attention to the details(The SM/DBZ connection, Bojack and Goten, Jun-Yah) and other storylines that were just well placed and fit in with the rest of the series.   
  
Now it`s all over though, and I`m proud of it. I`ve succeeded in pulling off a series of top-notch(don`t mind my ego for once) action/adventure series, even dashing in a smidget of romance on the side without resorting to cheap cop-outs like just _saying_ the characters did this or that during those six-seven years from the Cell Games to the Buu Saga, brought in a strong female character(Zangya) without turning her into a cheap side romance with one of the main characters, held off on having to do a lemon to get more people to read, held off on holding the story hostage for reviews like a shithead and held it true to itself, maintaining every character to some extent or another and even putting aside my fanatical, raving hatred of a few cliches in the process.   
  
All I have to say to everyone who read, whether you liked it or not and whether you reviewed or not, thanks. Thanks for reading, thanks for even realizing it existed and thanks for checking out a songfic that sought to break the mold.   
  
To those who inspired me, I thank you deeply. To the people at Mirai Shock, thanks for showing that it was possible to do a songfic that didn`t adhere to a crappy romance with no action, to DragonessEclectic and DoraMouse, thanks for proving that it was possible to combine existing mythology into a story or try and make your own to flow with it(not to mention the ideas the Character Compendium gave me/lead me to create on my own), to Flirtatious Flamingo, thanks for showing that it`s possible to write a DBZ/SM crossover without sucking ass(though I probably failed that with Evolution, but what the heck...), and to The Rev., thanks for proving that it was possible to bring a story down into Hell and have it come off as worth a god damn.   
  
To the reviewers, good and bad, thanks just as deeply. Without you, none of this would have ever happened because I`d`ve likely lost interest in it all shortly after the EP for Redux. To those who read and/or reviewed almost all of the fics in the series, especially the ones who kept with it whenever they possibly could, I especially thank you guys. More than anyone else, you kept the story going, because up until Evolution and probably even after that, these things wrote themselves.   
  
I just did the typing.   
  
And that`s all I have.   
  
With this series over though, I`m now free to pursue other things. Right now I`m working on a novel in the Zoids section called New Age, and I may even consider doing a sequel to the HT series some day, but in truth I feel it might be time to dig out some of my older works and polish them off with the kind of writing I can pull off now, without rushing and without trying to mish-mash them into the original story of the series, heedless of how it should`ve been.   
  
And speaking of HT sequels, there were actually a good many I had planned. A five parter dubbed Ecclectic, another that I briefly referenced in the series EP involving Gohan`s death and Pan`s birth among other things(I may still do it, really... Not sure though), another five parter I had planned was a look into the harsh world that Mirai Goten and Bra came from, a world that might have been had some things gone differently from the main HT series timeline, but none of those will probably ever happen. Ecclectic, I got to working on and realized it just wouldn`t work, while the five parter about Mirai Goten and Bra was just too different from the rest. There was also the five parter I had planned for, to be dubbed Reanimation, but I`m not sure if that`ll happen either since it was originally planned to take place between OP and Generations.   
  
As it stands, this series is officially over. Probably permanently but that`s almost up in the air, I`m not sure, but either way I intend on working through New Age first, then possibly doing a G Gundam fic. It`s time for me step away from this one and let it have it`s long overdue rest, because the story has ended on a good enough note as is, and who knows...   
  
Maybe some day I`ll enlighten you as to who won the last battle between Cell and Gohan, eh? Or any of the other things I`ve left unresolved for that matter.   
  
I guess this can only mean one thing now that I`ve finished wasting time rambling, and that is....   
  


So long and see ya next time!  
The _Sh33p_


End file.
